THE IMPACT OF USING A BILINGUAL DICTIONARY (ENGLISH-ARABIC) FOR READING AND WRITING IN A SAUDI HIGH SCHOOL
By
Ali Almaliki
A Master’s Thesis/Project Capstone Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Education Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Department of Language, Learning and leadership State University of New York at Fredonia Fredonia, New York
December 2017
THE IMPACT OF USING A BILINGUAL DICTIONARY (ENGLISH-ARABIC)
FOR READING AND WRITING IN A SAUDI HIGH SCHOOL
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-
Arabic) for reading and writing in a Saudi high school and also to explore the Saudi Arabian students’ attitudes and EFL teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries. This study involves 65 EFL students and 5 EFL teachers in one Saudi high school in the city of
Alkobar. Mixed methods research is used in which both qualitative and quantitative data are collected. For participating students, pre-test, post-test, and surveys are used to collect quantitative data. For participating teachers and students, in-person interviews are conducted with select teachers and students so as to collect qualitative data. This study has produced eight findings; first is that the use of a bilingual dictionary has a significant effect on the reading and writing scores for both high and low proficiency EFL students. Other findings include that most
EFL students feel that using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classrooms is very important to help them translate and learn new vocabulary words but their use of a bilingual dictionary is limited by the strategies for use that students know or are taught, and that both invoice and experienced
EFL teachers agree that the use of a bilingual dictionary is important for learning word meaning and vocabulary, but they do not all agree about which grades should use bilingual dictionaries.
The results of this study have a potential to alert Saudi policy-makers to the benefits of using bilingual dictionaries in the English curriculum through all grade levels in Saudi schools.
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Table of Contents
Abstract i
List of Tables and Figures iii
Section 1: Introduction 1 Problem Purpose Research Questions Significance
Section 2: Review of Literature 7 Introduction Learning and Teaching the English Language Learning and Teaching the English Language in Saudi Arabia Vocabulary Learning The Role of Dictionaries in Vocabulary Acquisition Bilingual Dictionary Use in EFL Contexts
Section 3: Methodology 44 Research Design Data Collection Procedure Data Analysis Validity and Reliability Considerations
Section 4: Results 56 Results From the Pre-test and Post-test Results From Survey of Students’ Attitudes Results From Students’ Interviews Results From Teachers’ Interviews
Section 5: Discussion 88 Overview of Study and Findings Significance of the Findings Limitations of the Findings Conclusion: Answer to the Research Question Recommendations for Future Research
References 99
Appendix A: Bilingual Dictionary Survey for EFL Students 108 Appendix B: Interview for EFL Students 109 Appendix C: Interview for EFL Teachers 109 Appendix D: Activity Before the Pre-test and Post-test 110 Appendix E: Pre-test (Without Using Bilingual Dictionary) 111 Appendix F: Post-test (With Using Bilingual Dictionary) 113
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List of Tables and Figures
Table 4.1 Mean Test Scores Analysis 57 Table 4.2 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding the Importance of Using Bilingual Dictionaries 62 Table 4.3 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding the Frequency of Using Types of Word Information 67 Table 4.4 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding the Necessity of Using Bilingual Dictionaries in EFL Classes 71 Table 4.5 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding Adequate Training to Use Bilingual Dictionaries 74 Table 4.6 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding Teachers’ Dictionaries Use Strategies Classroom 76 Table 4.7 EFL Students’ Background Information 78 Table 4.8 EFL Teachers’ Background Information 82
Figure 4.1 Statement 1. 59 Figure 4.2 Statement 2. 59 Figure 4.3 Statement 4. 60 Figure 4.4 Statement 6. 61 Figure 4.5 Question 7-a 63 Figure 4.6 Question 7-b 64 Figure 4.7 Question 7-c 64 Figure 4.8 Question 7-d 65 Figure 4.9 Question 7-e 66 Figure 4.10 Question 7-f 66 Figure 4.11 Statement 8 69 Figure 4.12 Statement 9 69 Figure 4.13 Statement 12 70 Figure 4.14 Statement 3 72 Figure 4.15 Statement 5 73 Figure 4.16 Statement 11 73 Figure 4.17 Statement 10 75
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Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 1
Section 1: Introduction
The English language has proven itself as a familiar channel of communication from centuries ago as a global language. Crystal (2012) describes the power of English Language on a global scale. Over the course of the last half-century, the English language has established itself to be one of the world’s first global language. According to Crystal (2012), there are two primary ways of achieving the status of “global language” as Crystal puts it: first, when the language becomes the Official Language of many countries and second when that language is made a priority in a country’s foreign language teaching. According to this criteria, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that shows English as a global language because Saudi Arabia has made English a priority subject in its public and private schools. However, English as Foreign Language (EFL) students in Saudi Arabia encounter a great stumbling block in their learning whether in reading comprehension or writing of English.
Problem
English language is considered as a primary subject in Saudi high schools where it is taught as a foreign language in four lessons per week. Students face many challenges in English subject, mostly in reading comprehension and writing English passages or writing about a topic in English since they have limited knowledge of English. Saudi students do not understand most of the English vocabulary words, which makes learning a big challenge for them since vocabulary words form an essential part of learning. Therefore, students struggle to find the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 2 meaning of the English words they encounter which are not translated into their home language of Arabic.
Some teachers of EFL in Saudi schools have become accustomed to teaching the English language using an old strategy for teaching new vocabularies. They teach English vocabularies using the memorization methodology as the best way for teaching. They have abandoned the vocabulary instruction which focuses on bilingual dictionaries because some of the teachers consider that English classes should be taught in the English language only and therefore disregard translating the meaning of the word into the Arabic language. These teachers feel that bilingual instructions should be avoided in EFL classes (Al-balawi, 2016).
On the other hand, English curriculums in Saudi schools have changed from how it used to be ten years ago when English curriculums were provided with Arabic translation at the end of the textbooks (Al-sowat, 2012). However, throughout recent years, English curriculum developers have disregarded the translation into the Arabic language (Alhaisoni, 2012). So,
English curriculums are now designed by overseas companies that only focus on giving English-
English meanings. This policy change causes many challenges in English language learning since it delays the Saudi students’ English learning abilities. Ryhan (2014) describes how Saudi
EFL students with little knowledge of the English language “students with no prior knowledge of
English language end up completely confused, threatened, demotivated, and lost in translation”
(p.141).
Based on my personal experience for many years in Saudi schools, I have noticed that many EFL students struggle with reading comprehension due to their lack of English vocabulary knowledge. I have also found that the biggest problem that EFL students encounter is the stumbling block of unknown words when they read. Alrashidi and Phan (2015) assert that many
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 3
Saudi EFL students memorize vocabulary to pass exams without understanding the underlying meaning of the content of the passage. Failing to understand the meaning behind the words ultimately means that these students are not gaining the foundational knowledge for success with the English language. However, according to (Assalahi, 2013), the Grammar-Translation method is allowed in EFL classrooms by the education policy in Saudi Arabia. However, many EFL teachers do not encourage EFL students to train and use a bilingual dictionary efficiently in order to understand the meanings of the English words they encounter (Hamouda, 2013). According to
Mart (2013), translation helps and allows EFL students to see the similarities and differences between their home language and a second language (English). Through comparing word meaning between both languages, students will use the target language effectively.
The level of writing skill among EFL students in Saudi high schools is considered one of the biggest areas of challenge. Most Saudi EFL students struggle with the task when they are asked to write on a particular topic, write a short composition piece or answer questions. These challenges stem primarily from their limited vocabulary in the second language (English). Al- khsawnesh (2010) explains that the majority of Saudi EFL students have a limited English vocabulary. Thus, students tend to repeat the same words when they are asked to write a composition. Al-khsawnesh (2010) also explains that due to their lack of English vocabulary, many EFL students are unable to give voice in English to their thoughts. Al-Nasser (2015) asserts that many Saudi EFL students encounter significant problems in writing, which then hinder their progress in learning the English language.
Based on my experiences teaching English in Saudi schools, I have observed EFL students continuing to face enormous challenges when required to complete writing tasks in
English. Often these students opt not to complete their writing task due to lack of confidence.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 4
When asked, they explain how their lack of English vocabulary is one of the biggest problems they face in the learning environment. When they are asked to write about a particular topic, they have ideas about the topic in their home language (Arabic), but they do not know how to translate those words into the English language and organize them in a way that would be clear and effective. Ultimately, the lack of vocabulary knowledge has impacted the EFL students I have taught and prevented them from communicating in English in written form.
Some EFL teachers consider the bilingual dictionary as a strategy for vocabulary learning that can be used as a beneficial tool by EFL students. According to Anuthama (2010), “bilingual dictionaries which provide L1 synonyms have been found to aid vocabulary learning” (p.11).
Knight (1994) states that “lower proficiency learners are faced with difficulties in reading comprehension due to lack of vocabulary knowledge which is considered to be a major factor in their inability to read” (p.292). According to Qian’s (2004) study, finds that a bilingual dictionary can help the lower proficiency students when confronted with unknown vocabulary words. Therefore, the use of a bilingual dictionary is very helpful in “the initial stages of learning
English vocabularies” (Carter & McCarthy, 2013, p.52). According to Shen (2013), the student who learns English vocabularies using a bilingual dictionary is more proficient in English and has a more vast vocabulary knowledge than a student who does not use a bilingual dictionary.
Purpose
The reading comprehension and writing skills for EFL students are hindered by the usage of vocabulary which they do not understand when they find unknown words in texts that are written in English. Therefore, EFL students’ ability to write on a particular topic in the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 5 classroom can be limited. Some English vocabularies become obstacles to EFL students because the students do not understand in their home language the meaning of new English words.
Therefore, using a bilingual dictionary in an EFL classroom may provide an easy way of translating English to the Arabic language and vice versa. The dictionary gives students the meaning of an English word in both English and Arabic. For the these reasons, this research aims to investigate the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic and Arabic-English) on the acquisition and development of English vocabularies during reading and writing to enable
Saudi EFL students in high schools to use the English language effectively in classrooms.
Research Questions
This study explores the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) among high school EFL students in Saudi Arabia and seek to answer the following questions:
(a) What is the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in Saudi high school on
reading and writing?
(b) What are the high school students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL
classrooms in Saudi Arabia?
(c) What are the high school EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of bilingual dictionaries in
EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia?
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 6
Significance
This study investigates students’ attitudes and the teachers’ perceptions towards the use of a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) during EFL classes in a Saudi high school class.
Because other research has shown the use of bilingual dictionaries to have a positive impact on
EFL student learning, this study is significant because it looks at an area not previously researched: the area of Saudi high school EFL students. First, by answering these research questions, this study aims to encourage EFL teachers to train on strategies and skills for using bilingual dictionaries in the classroom. Second, this study aims to help EFL students in Saudi
Arabia to overcome the problem or stumbling block they face in acquiring the meaning of
English vocabulary through helping them to use a bilingual dictionary when they struggle with
English reading and writing. Third, by answering these research questions, this study will contribute new knowledge and suggestions for course designers and curriculum developers about using bilingual dictionaries in Saudi schools. Finally, this study aimed to influence education policy-makers in Saudi Arabia to embrace and encourage the utilization of the bilingual dictionary in curriculum at all school levels.
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Section 2: Literature Review
Introduction
A dictionary is one of the essential learning tools for foreign and second language students. There are quite a variety of dictionaries that are used to aid students’ development in their new language studies. Of these, a bilingual dictionary is the one that a second language or foreign language learner most frequently comes into contact with (Schmitt, 2008). English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) is a course for international students who have other languages such as
Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and French as their home language. Such students are studying
English not because they want to use it in other school subjects, but to use English just as a foreign language. Many of students even have the opportunity to learn English as a Foreign
Language in their home countries which are not native English speaking countries.
This section highlights the history of English language in Saudi Arabia and seeks to review the issue of vocabulary acquisition, usage and how dictionaries are used within the context of the second language (L2) learning and foreign language (EFL) acquisition. The section also seeks to establish the challenges and strengths of using the three types of dictionaries: monolingual, bilingual, and bilingualized dictionaries that are commonly used in
EFL and L2 learning. The theories and learning strategies for vocabulary acquisition are also addressed.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 8
Learning and Teaching the English Language
Theories of L2 teaching and acquisition.
To understand the influence of a dictionary on language learning strategies, the evolution of language teaching and acquisition theories should be well appreciated. In the last century, the historical development of language learning theories has been that of “one coming in to replace the old, which has been become out of fashion”( Cote & Tejador, 2011, p.39). Chang (2011) states that the first theories were “based on grammar-translation method, communicative approach, and audio-lingual method” (p.14). However, Kulikova (2015) reveals that those first theories in fact “cover a broad spectrum of methodologies” (p.19) and differ greatly from each other, but none of them particularly allows students to use many learning tools to enhance their learning. Memorization strategies are taken seriously in grammar-translation theories while in audio-lingual approach students are discouraged from utilizing strategic learning methods for fear of “increasing error incidences” (Chang, 2011, p.13). According to Griffiths (2013), communicative theories encourage students to accept much responsibility for their individual learning but do not pay much attention to how students learn rather to but how teachers impart knowledge to students.
Richards and Rodgers (2001) support the use of bilingual dictionaries by recommending to teachers that they use the grammar-translation method to help students on vocabulary items because bilingual dictionaries present students with translated equivalents for vocabulary.
Therefore, by using the grammar-translation method, students can learn using bilingual word lists and with the support of bilingual dictionaries (Cook, 2010). Cook also states that the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 9 translation method is “effective with the teaching of reading skills, and it can be more useful for the reinforcing of writing skills” (p.74). Chan (2015) supports this approach by advising EFL teachers to encourage EFL students to consult bilingual dictionaries when attempting to complete their written work. A study was conducted by Eun-yung (2011) with Korean and Japanese students regarding the use of bilingual dictionaries in teaching English composition and in helping students to develop their writing skills. This study has reported “significant progress”
(p.157) in students’ performance in writing. Another study that supported the grammar- translation method is by Melati (2007), who finds that the use of the bilingual dictionary as a translation from the English language into L1 is “more effective” (p.40) than using a monolingual English language dictionary.
As for communicative theories, a few statements have supported the use of bilingual dictionaries. For instance, Yong (2003) states that “Bilingual Lexicography” (p.55) is “involved with the implementation of bilingual dictionaries that combine social cultures and communicative theories” (p.56). However, studies regarding the audio-lingual method have not been recommending the use of bilingual dictionaries. Another method that highlights the use of bilingual dictionaries is the direct method. Kernerman (2011) states that this approach can help with the learning of foreign languages through translation by using bilingual dictionaries.
Kernerman also states that learning English language “will not be achieved without translation”
(p.52).
Language learning strategies in high school EFL students.
According to Oxford (2011), language learning strategies are the “actions that the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 10 students use so as to improve their language learning skills” (p.7). Chamot (2005) defines language learning strategies as “the procedures that improve and facilitate learning tasks” (117).
Much of the existing research on language learning strategies and dictionary use seek to compile inventories on the existing learning strategies as observed in learners (Ellis, 2008; Griffiths,
2013). Little has been done to categorize the strategies into groups and integrate the impact of dictionary use. Those strategies that have had such categories do not introduce the impact of the bilingual dictionary in EFL and consider students in the intermediate courses (Griffiths, 2013).
Gradually, the classification of language learning strategies has been the subject of research, but still, there is no convergence point on the modalities of the classification and where the dictionary does come in since many researchers approach the subject from different angles (Li,
2011). Research shows that the most influential EFL learning strategies that incorporate dictionary usage include are the following.
Metacognitive learning strategies.
Metacognitive learning strategies are those that “utilize knowledge on cognitive learning and control language learning process through planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation” (Sun, 2013, p. 65). Zare (2012) considers that meta-cognitive learning methods comprise high-level executive skills that include directed attention, advance preparation, self- management, self-evaluation, and advance organizers. According to Mercer (2011), if these high-level processes are utilized during the reading and writing activities in High School EFL, a bilingual dictionary will be a great asset to help students learn vocabularies with ease. Schmitt
(2008) finds that the high school students in his study used six different strategies for vocabulary
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 11 learning. The most commonly used were “discovery” (p.338) and the bilingual dictionary with an overwhelming majority (95%) of the participants reflecting on the utilization of the bilingual dictionary as “helpful” (p.340).
The steps and operations that are utilized in cognitive learning of language are the same skills used in problem-solving, according to Waleed and Hadi (2008), and they require
“synthesis, direct analysis, and transformation of the learning materials” (p.3). A bilingual dictionary “comes in handy” in these activities and gives the students the sense of security of a concrete answer (Ellis, 2008). According to Sun (2013), cognitive strategies in language learning include translation, grouping, elaboration, deduction, repletion, recombination, directed physical response, contextualization, auditory representation, keywords, inference and transfer of meaning. A bilingual dictionary helps in the cognitive strategies of translation, contextualization, and elaboration. However, Mercer (2011) opines that these cognitive strategies seem to be anchored on the performance of specific learning tasks and the use of a dictionary influence each of them in a “distinctive manner” (p.78).
Affective/Social learning strategies are comprised of the ways in which students relate with one another or with native speakers and cover a wide category of student interactions
(Oxford,2011). The activities under social learning strategies include questioning, clarifying, and cooperating in the learning process (Oxford, 2011). Chamot (2009) provides a foundation for using cognitive strategies then combines it with affective/social learning strategies by providing drawings and graphs to illustration the important ideas and techniques that support the needs of students learning English as a second language. In affective learning strategies, dictionaries are
“rarely used” (p.28) except when the interactions are group discussion between native English speakers and non-English speakers (Wingate, 2004).
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 12
Indirect and direct learning strategies.
According to Oxford (2003), cognitive strategies, memorization strategies, and compensation learning strategies all fall under the scope of direct learning strategies (p.2).
Oxford (2011) explains memory strategies as those that “help learners to keep and recover the information” (p.45). Cognitive strategies include those that enable learners to appreciate and produce new language through various means. Oxford (2003) defines compensation strategies as
“those that allow students to use a given language frequently despite their usually wide gaps in knowledge about the same language” (p.14). This applies to those students taking English as a foreign language, and the dictionary helps them execute this strategy. A survey of the attitudes to learning strategies by Schmitt (1997) shows a preference for bilingual dictionaries more than monolingual dictionaries, guess from textual context, and gestures strategies by EFL students.
The findings from this survey show that the most used strategy was bilingual dictionary by 85% than those strategies.
According to Sun (2013) meta-cognitive strategies, effective strategies, and social strategies all fall under the header of “indirect learning strategies” (p.65). Unlike direct strategies, these strategies are indirectly involved in the target language learning process. In this category, meta-cognitive strategies enable students to control their own cognitive abilities by coordinating the learning process using functions that include alignment, centering, planning and evaluation. Effective strategies in this category refer to those that help learners understand a language through interaction with others.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 13
Language learning strategies and language using strategies.
For this classification, language learning strategies consist of those strategies “for the identification of the learning material” (p.15), excluding it from the rest, classifying it for easier learning, ensuring repeated contact with it and remembering it with less effort (Oxford, 2003).
On the other hand, language-using strategies consist of cover strategies, retrieval methods, rehearsal strategies and communication strategies (Laufer, 2010, p.184). Retrieval strategies are those that are utilized to “call-up language material from storage via any memory seeking method that the students can master” ( p.156). Rehearsal strategies consist of ways used by learners to rehearse target language structure (Zhi-liang, 2010). Communicating strategies are those that convey messages that are both meaningful and informative for the listener and reader
(Kulikova, 2015). The above strategies will be implemented along with the bilingual dictionary during the entire study.
Learning and Teaching the English Language in Saudi Arabia
Education system.
Elementary, intermediate, and secondary schools in Saudi Arabia are free and non- discriminatory. Kindergarten education is an option for parents (Roy, 2012); otherwise, students always start their elementary schooling at the age of seven. According to Alhaisoni and Rahman
(2013), the number of enrolling students increased dramatically between 2006 and 2007 at different levels of education. About 4.08 million joined the elementary school, about 14,880
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 14 enrolled for undergraduate education while the number of teachers was 233,900. In recent years, the number of public and private schools has increased up to 25,000 in Saudi Arabia, while the number of government universities has reached 25 and the private universities has reached eight.
These universities offer degrees in science, arts, medicine, and humanities. There are three stages in the education system in Saudi Arabia: elementary schools (1st grade to 6th grade), intermediate schools (7th grade to 9th grade), and high schools (10th grade to 12th grade) (Alrashidi & Phan,
2015).
In Saudi Arabia, the education system whether public or private education is observed and sponsored by the state Ministry of Education. All schools and universities are separated in education: female students are separated from male students. However, both male and female students have the same advantages of education whether in schools or universities (Alrashidi &
Phan, 2015; Elyas & Picard, 2010; Roy, 2012).
There are about 150 vocational training institutes set up by the Saudi Arabian government in an attempt to create over 3 million jobs for high school-leavers for the last ten years in efforts to minimize over-reliance on oil (Shea, 2006). The major areas of training include manufacturing, metal processing and the production of automotive parts. According to
Roy (2012), over 70% of the students entering universities choose to undertake arts and humanities. The government awards over 5,000 bursaries for overseas education every year.
The language of instruction throughout the education system is Arabic with various dialects. The government funds the educational system through the Ministry of Education. For instance, in 2015, the government launched a 5-year plan worth $22.20 billion to revamp the education system (World Bank, 2008). The educational sector accounts for 25% of the kingdom’s fiscal budget. New technical and professional education centers get approximately
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 15
$1.39 billion from the education budget due to their importance of economic diversification
(Roy, 2012). The National Qualifications Framework (NFQ) was established in 2009 by the
National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment, NCAAA, (Al-Nasser, 2015).
The English language curricula.
Studies have revealed that despite the approval of teaching English as a Foreign
Language as part of the education curriculum in Saudi Arabia since 1925, the attitudes of the
Saudis towards learning the English language had been negative until some positive changes took place in the curriculum in the 2000s (Alnofi, 2014; Faruk, 2014; Sofi, 2015). The Ministry of Education implemented the teaching of EFL in primary schools way back in 1930, but in 1942 a decree was issued from the Monarch that English teaching should start from middle school at
Grade 7 (Alhujailan, 2009). However, because of the importance of the English language in
Saudi Arabia, the Saudi’s Educational system changed the policy in 2010, included teaching
English in the elementary schools (Alrashidi & Phan, 2015).The initial length of English teaching lessons was 45 minutes each, 12 lessons a week for middle and high schools but the decree reduced the lessons to 8 and 6 per week for middle and high schools respectively while in the elementary schools, students have two English classes a week. This adversely affected the learning of EFL and pushed it to the periphery of the education curriculum. According to Elyas and Badawood (2015), many changes were made by the Ministry of Education during the first year of 2000 such as “developing primary and secondary levels curriculum, and building houses of expertise and instructional design centers” (p.27).
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According to Saudi Arabian English curriculum, “the language is to be taught just as a subject within the educational curriculum, not as a language of instruction” (Roy, 2012). The study by Alharbi (2015) finds this policy to be in practice making the lessons teacher-centered and the students being only passive receivers of the knowledge. Since many English teachers in the Saudi Kingdom are not well trained, learning by rote and short class lectures dominate the classroom learning methodologies (Alharbi, 2015; Roy, 2012; Shea, 2006; Sofi, 2015). Assalahi
(2013) reveals that over the past ten years in most Saudi schools, Arabic has been used as a language of instruction during English lessons, and grammar-translation dominates such lessons with textbooks and the curriculum content based on a deductive approach with topics unrelated to Saudi life. Consequently, critical thinking and analysis of the English language in EFL classrooms are lacking today.
According to Alshammari (2015), the global diffusion of English has resulted in the establishment of regional English varieties collectively referred to as “World Englishes (WEs)”
(p.366). This designation rekindled the need to introduce English as an International Language
(EIL) in many countries. In Saudi Arabia’s education curriculum, the English language is a compulsory element of the curriculum starting from 4th grade. The World Bank (2008) report indicates that many Saudi Arabian English teachers do not have much knowledge about English as an International Language (EIL) paradigm and its role in boosting students’ intercultural communication skills: these skills are a vital ingredient in the newly proposed by Saudi conceptualization of competency in English. Therefore, to improve the English curriculum and materials used in Saudi English lessons, Alshammari (2015) recommends the implementation of an “integrated” (p.368) EIL framework in English curriculum at all educational levels. This proposed integrated frameworks integrate the “cultural and linguistic diversity of English” and
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 17 the “models of “Outer-Circle” (368) and expanding circle countries to give a clear picture of the
English uses and users today. As Al-shahrani (2016) states, the introduction of the English language in Saudi’s education system was associated with significant “debate and conflict” (p.
45) due to religious, social, and cultural concerns as well as the fear of that the ascendency of
English language would influence the home language (Arabic) of Saudis.
According to Ratnawati (as cited in Alshammari, 2015), Saudi students and teachers in
Saudi Arabia faced “a clash of civilization” (p.369) as the cultural strength within the learning environment and curriculum teaching contend with each other. Al-Harbi (2002) describes how the teaching of English language in Saudi primary schools became a “different argument” with two groups: the first group believed that the knowledge of English is a basic demand in primary schools while the second groups believed that “exposing our young children to a foreign language and culture will be a calamity for their cultural and religious upbringing” (p.1).
However, because of the global demand and the English language has become the language of science, business, and technology, the importance of English language grew rapidly in Saudi Arabia (Alsamdni, 2010; ur-Rahman & Alhaisoni, 2013). Therefore, the English language is considered now one of “the important major subjects” (p. 113) in the Saudi’s educational system (urRahman & Alhaisoni, 2013). Regarding the English subject textbooks, according to Al-Saghayer (2005), during 1960, the main English textbook used in Saudi Arabia was “Living English for the Arab world”. However, this textbook was replaced in 1980 by the
Ministry of Education in collaboration with Macmillan Press. The new English textbook called
“Saudi Arabian Schools English” at middle and high schools levels. Al-Saghayer also explains the stages of the English curriculum replacement in Saudi Arabia, in 1990, the Ministry of
Education in cooperation with EFL specialists from King Fahad University in Saudi Arabia so as
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 18 to launch a new English textbook that called “English for Saudi Arabia.” This new textbook was aimed at teaching English as a “core subject” (p. 128) at the middle and high schools levels in
Saudi Arabia.
According to Elyas and Badawwod (2016), the Modernizations (Tatweer) indicates “an entirely new direction for education” (p.76) in Saudi Arabia. Since 2010, the Ministry of
Education in Saudi Arabia has introduced the English Language Development Project (ELDP) as the new educational reforms in the English curriculum; this project presents in elementary, middle, and high school levels. According to Tatweer (n.d), ELDP includes the hiring of curriculum design experts from the United States so as to guarantee the quality of the new
English curriculum. Currently, all Saudi high, middle, and elementary schools have selected to implement the new English curriculum such as Flying High, Get Ready, Smart Class, Full Blast,
Traveler, and wonderful World (Tatweer, n.d).
Goals and approaches to teaching EFL in Saudi Arabia.
From the decree issued by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education in January 2001,
Alrashidi and Phan (2015) outline the main goals and objectives of teaching or learning English within the school curriculum:
(a) Students are expected to possess the fundamental linguistic skills (writing, reading,
listening, and speaking).
(b) Teachers and students to acknowledge English language as a universal language of
communication.
(c) Students to be socio-linguistically positioned to gain from external cultures.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 19
(d) To increase students’ knowledge regarding the significance of English language as a
medium of international communication.
(e) Conduct different seminars so that students get positive aspects of English language and
to build their positive attitude towards the learning of English.
(f) Students should be taught religious, economic, and cultural subjects so that they have
knowledge of society’s issues (p.37).
However, research studies reveal that Saudi Arabia has not been able to achieve the above goals on a wide scale due to the continued use of Michael Philip West’s teaching approach and books for quite a long time to drive the English curriculum. Michael Philip West advocated for the inclusion of bilingual teaching classes where students were taught in English but the content was translated into students’ local language in order to enhance vocabulary learning (Alhujailan,
2009; Elliott, 2012; Sofi, 2015). According to Elyas and Picard (2010), in an attempt to salvage its curriculum objectives, Saudi Arabia changed its teaching approach and methodology by introducing the Grammar-Translation and Aural-Oral approaches despite the fact that these approaches have been proven an inefficient means of teaching the English language.
Obstacles to teaching English in the Saudi Arabia.
The propagation of English learning in Saudi Arabia has been taken up by both the government authorities and the Saudi Arabian educational institutions owing to the significant role of English in the modern world. Elyas and Picard (2010) argued that globalization has placed English at a global position to be spoken and studied the same way it is in the United
States of America and the United Kingdom where English is used as the local language.
However, as Al-shumaimeri (2003) notes, the EFL teachers have hinted that EFL learners finish
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 20 secondary schools but are still not able to undertake a short English conversation – an indication that the learners are not yet self-proficient in the English language despite having studied it for many years. As Fareh (2010) identifies, part of the challenge of teaching or learning EFL in
Saudi Arabia and the larger Arabic-speaking world is Arabic cultural beliefs and fear of embracing other cultures and languages from other parts of the world.
One obstacle is the Arabic accent which presents pronunciation problems. As Elyas and
Picard (2010) note, Saudis speak Arabic fluently because it is their mother tongue, and it has a different pronunciation from English. The vowel and consonant sounds in the Arabic alphabet differ from those in the English language. It has been established that a significant number of letters in English cannot be pronounced accurately by Arabic-speaking students. This is because
Arabic words are pronounced distinctively and separate from one letter to another, thus presenting each word with its distinct sound. However, in English, one letter may have several sounds and sometimes no sound at all like in the case of silent syllables. Introducing English to
Saudi EFL students means students will need to learn every aspect of English from pronouncing to reading and writing English (Al-Nasser, 2015). Elyas and Picard (2010) note that this pronunciation difficulty requires an enormous commitment by Arabic EFL students.
Limited time for instruction.
English has only been allocated four 45-minute class periods per week for the intermediate and secondary level students while their sixth-grade counterparts are allocated two
90-minute class periods per week (Al-Seghayer, 2014). The current education policy in Saudi
Arabia has allocated this limited time for English class instruction and other classes. However,
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 21 this limited time affects students in EFL classes as they do not have sufficient opportunity to practice their English language skills during class, which can in turn lead to ineffectual learning outcomes. The high-level expectations: sixth-grade elementary, intermediate, and secondary schools placed on English learning curriculum require the allocation of more instructional time for the teaching of English as a foreign language and practicing of what has been learned in class
(Al-Seghayer, 2014). On the other hand, the challenges of limited instructional time and large class sizes will also have an effect on EFL teachers. Shah, Hussain, and Nassef (2013) state that the large class enrollment size, which is more than 40 students in some classes, will impact EFL teachers’ effectiveness because they will not be able to cover all the English skills while supporting the individual needs of their students. The change in the classroom environment was the specific change by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia (Elyas & Badawwod, 2016).
Al-Rasheed, (2008) states that the Saudi government built 50 schools that will “reflect how the
Saudi schools have to be” (p.12).
Inappropriate teaching methodology.
The teaching of English in Saudi Arabia is confronted with a giant problem of using old methods in teaching English. These methods are teacher-centered, rote learning and direct translation where the student is always on the receiving end and not actively learning (Al-
Saghayer, 2014, p.20). The current teaching methodology requiring students to learn to recite certain English words for purposes of passing exams leaves no room for creative learning and linguistic growth by the students (Al-Nasser, 2015). This methodology has been adapted in use since the emergence of English classes in the Saudi schools in 1925. Al-Misnad’s study (1985)
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 22 describes how EFL students are required to memorize the vocabulary words and paragraphs without thinking deeply about or comprehending the information in the textbooks. Al-Saghayer
(2014) affirms earlier research, reflecting how student learning methods have not changed in nearly 30 years. Most students employ memorization as the best strategy to learn the English language: they memorize vocabulary words and paragraphs without understanding their meaning. This method has remained a common method used for teaching the English language in Saudi Arabia, a method that does not expect independent learning from the student (Al-Saraj,
2014; Alrashidi & Phan, 2015). Thus, most Saudi EFL students are accustomed to using this method to pass exams, but they soon forget the content because the student-centered learning process did not take place.
Suggested solutions to address the obstacles.
As Liton (2012) suggests, the Saudi Arabian curriculum used in the classroom should be subjected to an assessment in order to ensure it is designed in alignment with the needs of learners. It is clear to Liton that prioritizing the needs of education in a way that is divorced from the needs of its learners is prone to failure. An overhaul of the old material that is used in teaching should be executed and a new set of material that addresses the students’ needs be designed. Given that the obstacles to English learning in Saudi Arabia have been identified, the policymakers and curriculum designers should create a strategic plan with a raft of measures put in place to improve the learning of the English language. Also according to Liton (2012), there is
“an urgent need” (p.130) for all stakeholders, including policymakers, teachers, and students in the process of learning English to work together and support each other’s efforts in the English
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 23 language learning process. In this way, they can build a platform to discuss their ideas for improving the teaching and learning of English. They should appreciate each other’s efforts and try to work even better.
As Al-Samadani (2010) proposes, the Saudi Arabian government, the non-governmental organizations and other partners supporting education in Saudi Arabia should team up with the schools and higher institutions of learning in equipping the learners with the required modern facilities including modern textbooks, charts, e-learning materials and well equipped computerized libraries that will enhance the English teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia.
In 2003, the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia approved a law mandating the teaching of English in all public schools beginning in 6th grade (Ryhan, 2015). However, due to the importance of English in the global economy, the law was modified in 2010 so that the subject of English is now taught beginning in 4th grade in all schools (Alrashidi & Phan, 2015).
The Modernization Project (Tatweer), established by the Ministry of Education in 2007, is one example of a program aimed at integrating English curriculum into all aspects of the educational curriculum in public schools (Alyami, 2014). Through this project, training courses for English language teachers and training on the new English curriculum were developed and implemented with the aim of elevating the student proficiency level in the English language and finding appropriate solutions to enhance English language students’ learning outcomes (Elyas, 2014).
Vocabulary Learning
In terms of vocabulary acquisition, more research studies have been conducted on teacher’s perception and beliefs about the teaching of vocabulary than those examining the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 24 learners’ beliefs (Griffiths, 2013; Li, 2011). A survey by Heidar (2012) analyzes the correlation between students’ vocabulary learning strategies, beliefs, and outcomes. Heidar examines the learners’ self-efficiency in vocabulary learning skills and the link to their use of learning strategies. The findings reveal that learners’ common belief is that any new vocabulary learned should be put to use – even if used incorrectly. However, it is clear that for effective communication to occur, the English learners must expand their vocabulary and then use it correctly in context. Contrary to many beliefs within America and Asia, vocabulary memorizing is not a popular belief about learning of vocabularies. Rashid and Omid (2011) give a reason for this from a study that indicates the “most proficient” (p.141) students believed that vocabulary should be “learned through careful examination and natural exposure, not through memorization” (p.150) because memorizing leads to “out of context usage” (p.155) of words.
A study by Moir and Nation (2002) on vocabulary learning strategies and dictionary usage involved 10 EFL high school students in a follow-up study to evaluate changes in their views and approaches to vocabulary learning after using the new words in writing or speaking.
Moir and Nation evaluated the level of vocabulary retention and vocabulary learning by the EFL students during the Intensive English Program. Moir and Nation conclude that vocabulary acquisition and retention is a function of knowledge as well as aspects skills capacity. The students taking part in this study strongly agreed with the importance of understanding vocabulary to take exams, felt more “self-confident” (p.30) in their vocabulary learning ability, and conveyed a common interest in growing their new vocabulary.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 25
Significance of vocabulary knowledge.
Folse (2006) asserts that native speakers of a given language seem to acquire much of their vocabulary from context via reading and listening than writing because they enjoy the
“luxury of multi-exposure words variety over time in diverse contexts” (p.271). The native speakers learning their first language get much language input especially vocabulary from daily informal conversations and the media channels. Folse argues that second language (L2) learners are denied such luxury, particularly the Foreign Language (FL) students. Haarstrup (2008) argues that where a second language is taught in a nation that speaks the local language as their first language, students have a tendency to experience L2 classes for only a few hours per week, and these students must gain as much information as possible within that short period. This short exposure time explains why “lexical inference” (p.67) (a challenge even for native speakers) is an even greater task for second language learners, especially FL students.
Nation (2006) suggests that lexical inferencing could be a useful strategy if done successfully, but it “can hardly be successful” (p.77) if the ratio of known words within the text does not offer the student the opportunity to investigate and apply all of the contextual clues in order to gain an understanding in context. Nation notes that sufficient contextual comprehension could only be achieved if no less than 98-99% of the words in the text are known. This point highlights the role of vocabulary knowledge in comprehension. Therefore, extensive strategic skills in second language learning cannot overcome the deficiency in vocabulary knowledge when it comes to contextual understanding and appreciation and application (Grabe, Jiang &
Schmit, 2011; Schmitt, 2010).
In a survey by Nassaji (2008) only 25% of the target words were correctly inferred by the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 26 participating students even though the students reported to have been using “multifaceted strategies” (p.655) such as verifying, monitoring, repeating, self-inquiry, and analogy and analyzing to try and lexically infer the meaning of the words. They also “utilized multiple knowledge sources” (p.660) such as grammatical, discourse, morphological and the first language knowledge. The level of success of lexical inferring was discovered to be more dependent on the level of vocabulary knowledge within a given context than on the strategies employed. Nassaji concludes that successful inferring within a context is as a “result of considering, monitoring and judging the text” (p.668), all of which require vocabulary knowledge to present information within a broader context.
Incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading and writing.
Incidental learning is the one where participants are not forewarned of any upcoming test.
In this case, the learners acquire new vocabulary in the “normal studies” (p.260) which are not meant to prepare the learners for any test (Hulstijn, 2001). As the learners practice their reading and writing skills, they encounter new words which they put to use in their normal course of study.
A study of 30 EFL students in a secondary school in Thailand was conducted by
Srimanee and Laohawiriyanon (2010). Their research aims to explore how “reading texts to acquire the target words incidentally influenced” (p.17) the English language learners’ expansion of vocabulary knowledge. Four vocabulary learning strategies were used in their study: bilingual and monolingual dictionary use, evaluation of information sources, express memorization, and other non-specified strategies. Srimanee and Laohawiriyanon find that of the four strategies they
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 27 examined, the bilingual and monolingual dictionary use was the most effective strategy used by their students.
Horst, Cobb, and Nicolae (2005) state that “ incidental learning is useful” (p.98) since students learn many vocabulary words that are beneficial to them. As Nation (2008) asserts, the use of a second language dictionary is linked to the amount of second language vocabulary that a student has. Kweon and Kim (2008) emphasize that “EFL students acquire vocabulary words incidentally through comprehensive reading and the acquired words are conserved” (p.196).
As Maghsodi (2010) notes, the more vocabulary words a student acquires, the better the student becomes in his or her “L2 lexical construction” (p.25). A study by Laufer (2000) on incidental vocabulary acquisition involved EFL high and university students. The findings show that looking up new vocabulary words by using a dictionary during a reading task was more
“effective for incidental learning” (p. 851) than reading with the same vocabulary words glossed in the text margin. Folse (2004) considers that many EFL teachers worldwide have standardized the syllabus of the curriculum by designing it in a grammar-oriented manner that sees students engage in repetitive processes that require them to memorize high-frequency words and expressions for the purpose of passing highly standardized tests. Siddiek (2011) explains that the
Saudi high school leavers do not sit for one “national standardized achievement test” (p. 57) at the end of the school year because this standardized test was revoked by the Saudi Ministry of
Education. However, EFL students have only local teachers made examinations in all school disciplines. Thus, this standardized test affects on the students’ English language performance because students only pay much focusing on teaching test techniques so as to gain high scores.
Hus (2010) affirms that this standardized tests can be “highly monotonous and tedious” (p.51) to students.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 28
Moreover, EFL teachers may even create word lists for some highly standardized international English tests, thus, causing students to believe that memorizing rather than comprehending and understanding the words is the “best way” (p.278) to learn (Folse, 2004).
Maghsodi (2010) further notes that memorizing method not only “contributes to the learner’s low motivation in learning but hampers the learner’s development” (p.17). According to Kung and Chuo (2002), “the students feel that it is enough for them to acquire other vocabulary words except for those words lists that always appear frequently in the students’ textbooks used in EFL classrooms” (p.9). This method reduces student’s motivation to acquire others vocabulary words.
The Role of Dictionaries in Vocabulary Acquisition
Dictionaries whether monolingual or bilingual are, in a variety of ways, essential tools for students wanting to gain knowledge about a second language. Hunt and Beglar (2005) ascertain that dictionaries aid students in reading comprehension and enhance students’ “recalling and using of new words appropriately and accurately” (p.32). Dictionaries also help boost the students’ awareness of the “variation of vocabularies” (p.68) between second and home language, and of how translations affect the development of reading as a constructive process.
Therefore, dictionaries enhance language proficiency at the word level and help bridge the gap between the first and second language (Hunt & Beglar, 2005). However, Chen (2011) states that many second language learners “over-rely on dictionaries” (p.438) which makes students falsely believe the existence of a “perfect translation” (p.439) from home language to the second language. For instance, using a bilingual dictionary among EFL students is witnessed in many
Chinese-speaking EFL students writing with the home language interference on international
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 29 tests. In a study, Hayati (2005), finds that although both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries are useful for student vocabulary learning, the bilingual one is more effective than the monolingual one among Iranian intermediate EFL students for reading comprehension. Hayati
(2005) notices that the participants in his study faced difficulties in using a monolingual dictionary, and they preferred using a bilingual dictionary in order to look up the unknown words.
Folse (2006) and Maghsodi (2010) agree that L2 students have “a higher affinity” (p.275) for word retention if the L1 translations and definitions are provided. This means that L2 students who are given L1translations have high retention rates for new vocabularies because they have the chance to confirm the word meaning from the bilingual dictionary in the first instance. Nonetheless, many users of dictionaries have dismissed bilingual dictionaries and preferred monolingual ones by arguing that the former is “limited due to their old-fashioned and intractable first language translations” (Chan, 2004). For instance, White (1997) posits that some first language translations as done in bilingual dictionaries may give students other language equivalents which are considered as inaccurate and mostly do little to elevate learners’ lexical knowledge. Lew (2004) also asserts that EFL students receive limited L2 information from bilingual dictionaries which could be “problematic” (p. 12) in many EFL context.
However, Thumb (2004) argues that the monolingual dictionary facilitates student’s language skills in making guesses on the second language word meaning from the given context in the second language. For instance, the use of a monolingual dictionary can raise second language students’ linguistic ability from the second language display and the high-level context the dictionary provides. In contrast, Hunt and Beglar (2005) state that second language students may “feel let down” (p.40) when they are not familiar with the way that monolingual dictionaries
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 30 are written since those dictionaries provide only second language explanations and sentence examples. Lew and Salaciak (2014) define bilingualized dictionaries as a “dictionary that combines the features of both a bilingual and monolingual one” (p.48). Chen (2011) argues that consulting a bilingual dictionary may help students by providing them the advantages of the both bilingual and monolingual dictionaries such as “contiguity of their home language equivalents and second language definitions” (p.439).
Types of dictionaries.
Dictionaries that can be utilized in high school EFL and other similar circumstance can be categorized into three types: monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, and bilingualized dictionaries.
Monolingual dictionaries.
These dictionaries use only in the explanation of English words and expressions, and they serve as “the most important instrument” (p.48) for clarification of the meaning of a word
(Lew & Salaciak, 2014). The monolingual dictionary has detailed explanations, and descriptions of words and some dictionaries even give the use of a word in different contexts. Maghsodi
(2010) states, “the monolingual entry can provide more detailed and precise information about idiomatic usage, common collections, and connotations” (p. 317). Therefore, a monolingual dictionary can be a very effective learning tool for advanced learners as they are deemed to
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 31 understand the basic wording so that they can refer to the monolingual dictionary for meanings of vocabulary.
Bilingual dictionaries.
Bilingual dictionaries pair English with another language. These dictionaries have two parts: English (L2) and another language. An EFL student will choose the bilingual dictionary whose other language is that student’s native language (L2). In a bilingual dictionary, the translated equivalent of the word is expressed with the support of a corresponding word or expression in the other language (Lew & Salaciak, 2014). This translation with the corresponding definition provides the user with two definitions not just one than monolingual dictionaries.
Three studies on dictionary use during exams were conducted by East (2008). These studies used upper and intermediate level students from Germany studying in New Zealand whose first language is English. One of the studies was conducted on 47 students who were asked to complete two writing tests. In a repeated measure design, the students were allowed to undertake the exams with and without a dictionary. Videotapes and interviews were used to ascertain the number of “lookups” (p.345) made by each student, and the results were triangulated with results from observation sheets. The study used a bilingual dictionary, and the results helped East draw conclusions that highlight “crucial practical issues that should be
addressed” (p.346) when helping students taking foreign language studies to utilize a bilingual dictionary “in the most rewarding ways” (p.346) when writing their exams. East finds that the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 32 use of a bilingual dictionary helped students to “perform better in reading and writing tests regardless of their language proficiency” (p.347) level.
Bilingualized (semi-bilingual) dictionaries.
This type of dictionary combines features of both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries
(Chen, 2011). Bilingualized dictionaries are the newest type of dictionary and therefore require a more detailed description. Lew and Salaciak (2014) explain that a bilingualized dictionary “starts where the monolingual dictionary stops” (p.48) adding some “bilingual elements” to its definitions. In this respect, “both the vocabulary list and the recognition structure are supported entirely” (p.48) by the English language. The process of “bilingualization” involves providing the non-English language equivalent for each word’s meaning, but “rarely are the definitions and examples also translated” (Lew & Salaciak, 2014, p.48). Lew (2004) proposes that foreign language learners could benefit from using bilingualized dictionary because that dictionary
“brings together the definitions of the foreign language with their native language counterparts”
(p.7). Hunt (2009) argues that a bilingualizd dictionary is “useful” (p.18) because it offers learners information in both the first language and their second language.
Takahashi (2012) highlights three fundamental uses of any dictionary: “used as a study aid in language classes, used as a reference book for vocabularies and used as a guideline for important points during the learning process” (p.104). According to Takahashi’s research on dictionary use skills, the type of a dictionary to be used in writing class sessions determines the nature of the skills required for using the dictionary. A student’s language proficiency level dictates the suitability of a given dictionary. For instance, low levels of proficiency discourage
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 33 the use of monolingual dictionaries but encourage the use of bilingualized dictionaries
(Takahashi, 2012, p.119). Anuthama (2010) shows that bilingualized dictionaries could be used for EFL learners because a bilingual dictionary provides only the home language while bilingualized dictionary “provides second language usage and sentence examples as well as mother tongue synonyms” (p.11).
Monolingual compared to bilingual dictionaries.
Stein (2013) claims that the “inclusion of both monolingual dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries in foreign language coaching was necessary for the best students outcomes” (p.38).
“Bilingual dictionaries aid students in translating common words and help them to obtain accurate translations” (Stein, 2013, p.40). These dictionaries provide technical and expressive vocabulary meanings in both the first and second language. Stein (2013) is also of the opinion that monolingual learners dictionaries grant access to the meaning of “discriminations” (p. 42) built by the target language and give definitions which differentiate the meanings. Stein believes that by “connecting the new unit” (p.42) to something similar and pointing the similarities between the old and the new, the learner will better understand the content.
Many extreme statements have been made concerning the pros and cons of the three types of dictionaries: the monolingual, bilingual and bilingualized dictionaries. However, there is no concrete evidence to determine which of these is the best type of dictionary. A study by
Laufer (2011) suggests that “effectiveness” (p.183) is not defined by a particular kind of dictionary, but rather that the focus should be on the efficacy of each dictionary itself. This effectiveness was determined by the coverage of the dictionary, the scope of content presented,
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 34 the procedure by which the author updated the dictionary, and whether it included important entry points covered by other dictionaries. Laufer finds that bilingual dictionaries were “the earliest dictionaries” (p. 185) and they are limited by coverage and entry length.
The findings lie with the results that depend on the extent of the language learners’ tendencies. Chan (2011) also conducts a study on advanced ESL students that shows the students’ preference to bilingual or monolingual dictionaries. The findings show that the majority of the participating students prefer the use of a bilingual dictionary.
Bilingual Dictionary Use in EFL Context
The importance of bilingual dictionaries in EFL course.
The bilingual dictionary has existed for some time being attuned to the “productive requirements” (p.51) of students who are native speakers of a particular L1. Although these requirements have been around for many years. English teachers have remained unaware of their benefits and even of their existence; they continue to promote monolingual English language dictionaries as best for students (Lew & Salaciak, 2014). The research presented here does not guarantee the excellence of monolingual English learning dictionaries, but the research does suggest that these monolingual dictionaries are not ideal for English as foreign language students. This claim is supported with Ryu’s (2006) survey that indicates that students when selecting their “favorite dictionaries” (p.90) seem to depend on recommendations from their tutors who most often recommend bilingual English learning dictionaries.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 35
English teachers face “confusion around the actual strengths and weaknesses of the different types of dictionaries available” (Augustyn, 2013, p.370). The prevailing belief has been to push learners towards the use of monolingual dictionaries from the earliest time possible in an attempt towards completely removing the first language from the learning process, a view that has brought up a significant questioning for good reasons (Augustyn, 2013; Hall & Cook 2012).
Lew and Salaciak (2014) state that no one is arguing that monolingual English learning dictionaries have proved to be “excellent products in learning classes” (p.48). However, many tutors blind to other possibly interesting alternatives of bilingual English learning dictionaries designed specifically for English as foreign language learners. More often, English teachers give
“misleading advice” (p.36) to the students concerning bilingual learning dictionaries based on the ignored view accorded to bilingual dictionaries for which they have scarce or no tentative evidence (Cote & Tejador, 2011). Corrius and Pujol (2010) encourage further “development of bilingual English learning dictionaries” (p.138) in order to support the teaching and learning outcomes in English as foreign language courses.
As East (2008) points out, these views are affected by knowledge-based methods that aid analytical writing assessment. This view employs the use of test scores as a “snapshot” (p. 347) of the second language to determine the students’ writing ability and make sure the foundational knowledge is maintained; this is considered a predict in future success. In respective of this view,
“communicative writing proficiency construction is an authentic tool in the process of writing since it helps EFL student enhance their reading and writing skills” (East, 2008, p.348).
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 36
Studies on bilingual dictionary use.
According to a survey by Li (2011), in 7 West Europe countries and involving about
1,100 students of English, about 75% of the second language learners use bilingual dictionaries in their everyday studies. In that same survey, almost 55% of the foreign language learners affirmed that the bilingual dictionary was the only dictionary they were using. This trend demonstrated the significance of the bilingual dictionary usage. However, other previous studies
(e.g., Ayatollahi, Rasekh & Tavakoli, 2012; Nation, 2013) reveal that indeed a monolingual dictionary was “more effective” (p.40) in aiding students in finding relevant information about foreign languages. There is another type of dictionary which is gaining popularity in the recent past, bilingualized dictionary with all features of a monolingual dictionary and a proper translation into a foreign language for each entry. Despite the existence of other types of dictionaries, an investigation by Laufer (2011) reveals that this new bilingualized dictionary is the “most effective” (p.185) of all.
Many studies on whether dictionaries especially bilingual ones help learners in the learning process have received mixed results (Chen, 2011; Laufer, 2010; Miller, 2008; Navarro
& Thornton). The mixed results come about due to the feeling among some teachers that a dictionary can adversely affect learners if they excessively depend on them leading to misuse
(Navarro & Thornton, 2011). Many researchers have attributed this trend to the learners possessing inadequate knowledge on conventions on dictionary usage. According to Chen
(2011), sometimes students chose definitions from the dictionary that do not fit intended contexts hence not extract the most relevant information about the word or phrase from the dictionary
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 37 entry. In other cases, students misidentify “grammatical categories” (p.440) of a word in bilingual dictionaries which lead them to select a wrong translation.
Ayatollahi, Rasekh, and Tavakoli (2012) conduct a study on international students’ usage of dictionary habits and reported that some misuse of the dictionary is as a result of students lacking the dictionary usage techniques. However, this study was general in scope hence did not explain the errors brought about by the bilingual nature of some dictionaries used by international students who study English as a foreign language and the native English speakers who learn foreign languages.
Much of the existing literature has studied dictionary influence on receptive language techniques such as vocabulary retention and reading (e.g., Knight, 1994; Laufer, 2011; Navarro
& Thornton, 2011; Wingate, 2004). There are limited studies on the impact of dictionary usage on productive language skills such as writing. Although reading is the activity wherein a student might most frequently use a dictionary, Wingate (2004) reasons that this is not the only time that a dictionary might be useful to a learner, nothing that the dictionary might also be particularly useful to use in English as a foreign language classes.
Bilingual dictionary use in reading and writing.
Scientific study on learning of the foreign language vocabulary has been neglected and other areas of language learning given attention in terms of research. Bilingual dictionary assists
“lower proficiency” (p.438) learners in reading efficiency. These students do not have knowledge of much vocabulary contributing to their inability to read (Chen, 2011). Bilingual dictionaries only give “an L1 synonym while a bilingualized dictionary also contains L2
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 38 definitions, examples of L2 sentences, and also L1 synonyms” (p.439). Furthermore, it is advantageous that bilingual dictionaries can be used by learners at all levels (Thumb, 2004).
A bilingual dictionary is very “helpful” (p.115) in teaching English to the beginners as they learn words which are translated from the native language to English. The student can personally learn for himself without engaging a tutor, but at first, the pronunciation of such words proves to be a big challenge (Loucky, 2003). With time, the student will begin to master the pronunciation of such words. This kind of learning is bound to be slow as a student may
“memorize the facial expression” (p. 349) or even sign language applied by the tutor to drive home his or her point (East, 2008).
As Corrius and Pujol (2010) note, there are several ways of dealing with vocabulary; the
“chief method” (p.50) is the use of a dictionary to learn a second language. However, the use of a bilingual dictionary is “limited in the information” (p.42) it provides about grammar, status, synonyms, derivative affixes, and the differentiation between English in its spoken and written form (Garcia, 2005).
Some studies on the use of the bilingual dictionary in learning English as a foreign language have been done. For example, Chen (2011) concentrates on the effect the bilingual dictionary on vocabulary learning of 297 university EFL students. The study’s findings indicated that the students who utilized a bilingual dictionary “attained significantly high scores” (p.440) on vocabulary reading than those who did not use the bilingual dictionary in their learning process. Similar results were obtained from Knight’s (1994) study whereby students were
“blocked by every student’s language mastery and proficiency” (p.292). The students who engaged the bilingual dictionary were a notch higher than those who did not use a bilingual dictionary.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 39
Some experimental studies chose to examine the effect of bilingual dictionaries on vocabulary performance in reading and writing. For instance, Shamshirain (2015) conducts a study on 66 Iranian EFL students in a high school. The target students were asked to take the
“Nelson proficiency test” (p.179). First, all of the target students were given a vocabulary test as a pre-test. Second, the students were divided into bilingual and monolingual groups randomly, and then they were given a list of unknown words to find the meaning of those words. The findings revealed that the bilingual group’s performance was better than that of the monolingual groups.
Another study was a quasi-experimental design, conducts by Vahdany et al. (2014) on 80
Iranian students in order to investigate “the lexical proficiency” (p.35) in writing skills. The participants were divided into two groups and then asked to write a composition using the monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The results of the study show that the participants who used bilingual dictionaries had a higher score than those who used monolingual dictionaries. An experimental study conducts by Ma and Cheon (2016) to examine the effects of bilingual dictionary use on vocabulary learning. The study involved some high school students divided into four groups; the first group with read-aloud with bilingual dictionary use, the second group with listening with bilingual dictionary use, the third group with bilingual dictionary use only, and the fourth group without the use of bilingual dictionaries. The participants were assessed through pre-test, post-test, and delayed test. The findings show substantial achievement in their scores on vocabulary except for the fourth group that did not use bilingual dictionaries. The study also revealed a positive influence through the use of bilingual dictionaries.
Bilingual dictionaries have been proven to “impact vocabulary recall” and “retention”
(p.35) at the high school language proficiency level (Abdollahzadeh, Ghanipoor, Gholami, &
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 40
Vahdany, 2014). These studies are not many, and “this paucity is superb” (p.35) given the important role of bilingual dictionaries in the English as a foreign language study. In other studies, a number of tutors have expressed their concerns about bilingual dictionaries. For instance, Hall and Cook (2012) note that a significant number of “high-frequency” (p.280)
English words would be “afforded the right application” of lexical objects (p.55) in monolingual dictionaries. Garcia (2005) also adds that a monolingual dictionary not only provides definitions as alternatives to the “application of lexical objects” (p.32) but also gives the user the means of employing the definitions.
Garcia (2005) asserts that more “attention” (p.42) should be directed to the use of a monolingual dictionary as it promotes fluency by providing explanations and definitions in a specific context. Bilingual dictionaries, in contrast, have been noted to provide students with
“single-word translation parallels” (p.52) that are not always applicable to the question or situation being undertaken. Baxter (1980, as cited in Laufer, 2011) also agrees that EFL students in a Japanese University environment were more successful when their English vocabulary was supported with referencing of bilingual dictionaries (Laufer, 2011).
Contrary to this opinion Hunt and Beglar (2005) are of the view that more information is omitted in a bilingual dictionary, thus limiting the “scope of knowledge” (p.30) of the learner.
However, as Cote and Tejedor (2011) find out when students are allowed to choose between monolingual and bilingual dictionaries freely, a bigger percentage of the students reported a preference for bilingual dictionaries. Prichard (2008) concludes that however regularly incorrect or misleading the bilingual dictionary is seen to provide the learners the assurance of a particular response or answer. Prichard (2008) also notes that the bilingual dictionary is “specific in its
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 41 description” (p.225) in a manner that can be referred to as translation, unlike a monolingual dictionary that leaves the students to keep on guessing or speculating on the most likely meaning.
However, a critical look at the existing research provides an insight that can help in identifying the role of bilingual dictionaries in the learning of English as a foreign language.
Regardless of how contextual rich in content a monolingual dictionary may be, it will be appropriate to the advanced learners of the English language (Prichard, 2008). The bilingual dictionary works best with “beginners who are learning English as a second language” (p.290) because their knowledge of vocabulary is still growing, making them depend solely on a word to word translation (Knight, 1994, p.291).
Teachers’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries.
The teachers’ perspective on the utilization of a bilingual dictionary in teaching English as a foreign language have been researched by Miller (2008) in Australia. Miller argues that it is the “intention of dictionary makers” (p.17) that students use bilingual dictionaries for a limited time. Although dictionary makers assume that students would be trained in their use in class, teachers’ negative attitudes to the use of these bilingual dictionaries were shown to impact outcomes. The majority of teachers who responded to this study were of the opinion that guidance of the learners is important as it will boost their understanding and assimilation of whatever has been learned.
Tutors using traditional “grammar-translation methods” (p.227) have recommended the use of bilingual dictionaries when focusing on deciphering and interpreting the text (Prichard,
2008). However, the position has “shifted” (p.230) with more tutors championing for more
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 42 attention to examining the efficiency of bilingual dictionary use. Prichard (2008) also suggests that more “effective methods” (p.220) of learning English as a foreign language have been developed, but these methods have not provided a clear blueprint. Several studies have been conducted with mixed results on the post-reading vocabulary and a comprehensive score of students with or without bilingual dictionaries. Although some of these studies have yielded contrasting results, most of these studies have shown students obtain better comprehension outcomes using bilingual dictionaries (Miller, 2008).
Students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries.
Some studies have been carried out regarding students’ attitudes towards the use of bilingual dictionaries. For instance, a survey by Martinez (2008) involving 60 English learners at the University of Mayaguez in Spain assessed students’ attitudes towards the using of bilingual and monolingual dictionaries. The study finds about 80% of the student participants preferred bilingual dictionaries over monolingual dictionaries to support the content they were learning in the English classes. Al-salami and Hattab (2008) conduct a study on Iraqi EFL students to discover their attitudes towards the different types of dictionaries. The findings reported that most of the students preferred bilingual dictionaries because these dictionaries helped them to obtain the meaning in their home language. In a similar vein, Loucky (2001) also carries out a study on Japanese students to discern their outlook towards the various types of dictionaries. The results revealed that the majority of the Japanese students preferred to use bilingual dictionaries because those dictionaries could provide them with the meaning of unknown words in their home language.
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To sum up, this section highlighted an overview of learning and teaching the English language and the history of learning and teaching the English language in Saudi Arabia. The influence of vocabulary learning on L2 teaching was also reviewed. It reviewed the existing literature on the role of bilingual dictionaries in vocabulary acquisition. Previous studies on bilingual dictionary use in EFL contexts have been reviewed, and the essence of using monolingual and bilingual dictionaries has been explored. Lastly, previous studies on students’ attitudes and teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries were reviewed. The goal of these main themes is to support the purpose of this study, which is to investigate the impact of using a bilingual dictionary on the acquisition of vocabulary during reading and writing. It also aims to investigate students’ attitudes and teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries.
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Section 3: Methodology
This study aims to determine the impact on reading and writing of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in Saudi Arabian high schools and also to examine the Saudi Arabia students’ attitudes and teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries. This study provides answers to the research questions by collecting and analyzing data from English as a
Foreign Language EFL students and EFL teachers.
Research Design
This study was followed by a mixed methods approach that involves the integration of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Since a mixed methods approach “utilizes the synergies that exist” (Fraenkel, Hyun, & Wallen, 2012, p.558) between quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study, the researcher will be able to provide a fuller understanding of the use of bilingual dictionaries. Using the quantitative method, a survey was carried out on the target population in high schools to get information about students’ attitudes toward using bilingual dictionaries among the study variables and, pre-test and post-tests were carried out to measure variable changes after using bilingual dictionaries. Using the qualitative method, in- person interviews were scheduled and conducted with EFL classroom teachers and students.
Setting.
The setting for this study is an urban public high school, located in Alkhobar, a large city located in the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. According to the General
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 45
Directorate of Education in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (2015), elementary schools there have 7,910 students (71% of the total school population), middle schools have 1,943 students (17%), and high schools have 1,262 students (11%). All these schools are considered public schools within this province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The total number of EFL high school students targeted for this research is 290: the tenth grade has a gross enrolment for
EFL of 130 students, the eleventh grade has an enrolment of 100 EFL students, and the twelfth grade has a total of 60 EFL students. The total number of all teachers is 30, and five of these are considered EFL teachers. All targets students have four 45-minute English classes per week.
Flying High is considered to be a textbook in Saudi high schools that was designed by
Macmillan Education Company and published in 2013. It was designed for Saudi high school students learning English as a foreign language. The textbook consists of a student book, class
CDs, teacher’s book, and a workbook. Flying High was divided into six levels: levels 1 and 2 for the 10th grade, 3 and 4 for the 11th grade, and 5 and 6 for the 12th grade. Flying High is aimed to offer students content that is “motivating, insightful, and compelling” (Spencer, & Baxter, 2015).
It also is focused on helping students to extend their understanding of vocabulary and grammar through various activities. Additionally, Flying High is designed to develop the four skills of speaking, reading, listening, and writing. The book encourages EFL students to improve their abilities, learn grammar rules, and expand their lexical knowledge using various vocabulary tasks. Through listening and reading tasks, students are supported to identify and read different types of texts including articles, magazines, and stories. There are also types of tasks such as matching, true/false, and multiple choice. As for developing speaking skills, Flying High has photographic materials that help students to develop the ability to speak effectively. Also, each unit has a large part focused on developing oral skills.
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Participants.
The participants in this study are 65 EFL students and 5 EFL teachers in one Saudi high school in the city of Alkhobar. All the participants in this study are males. The target grade was the third grade of high school, equivalent to the senior year of high school in the United States.
There are two reasons why the third grade was chosen in this study. First, the students are about to graduate and move on to university, which requires them to know a sufficient breadth of
English vocabulary words in order to succeed in university study. Second, the students will likely continue their use of a bilingual dictionary for their academic career after graduating from high school and therefore would likely benefit from participating in this study. There are three classes in the third grade: the first class has 22 EFL students, the second class has 22 EFL students while the third class has 21 EFL students. The total number of EFL students in the third grade who use the Arabic language at home is 65. Participants’ ages range from 16 to 17 years old. They all learned English as a Foreign Language, which is considered a mandatory subject in elementary, intermediate (middle), and high schools in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the English language is considered the only foreign language which is offered in Saudi high schools where students do not have options to study other foreign languages. All participants had two English classes per week during the fourth grade to sixth grade in elementary schools, and in first (seventh grade), second (eighth grade), and third (ninth grade) grade of intermediate schools. In high schools, they have four 45-minute English classes per week.
In order to use available knowledge of the selected teachers, five EFL teachers were interviewed within the school environment; these were only teachers who are considered EFL teachers. The researcher took into account that those teachers should have profound knowledge
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 47 on the use of monolingual, bilingual, and bilingualized dictionaries by EFL students during reading and writing. They were asked questions regarding the utilization of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes so as to understand the impact of those dictionaries on student comprehension.
The five EFL teachers graduated from Saudi universities, and they hold bachelors’ degrees in teaching English as a Foreign Language. They have been teaching English for three to twenty years. Three of them have been at the target school for six years, while the other EFL teachers have been there for three years. One of them teaches the third grade while the others teach the first and second grade in this high school. They each teach about 20 hours of English classes per week.
Data Collection
In order to gather information from this study, the researcher used mixed methods research in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. There were separate instruments used for students and teachers while conducting this study. For students, surveys and pretest and post-test were used to collect quantitative data, while in-person interviews schedules were conducted with select teachers so as to collect qualitative data.
Pre-test and post-test.
These tests were used mainly to measure variable changes within the study population and the ability of research instruments to objectively measure the study variables and determine with credible findings. The first tests was the vocabulary checklist activity (see Appendix D)
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 48 where the vocabulary words were collected by choosing random vocabulary words from the lessons in their current curriculum. This activity was aimed at testing the students on their knowledge of the vocabulary in the current curriculum Flying High. After collecting students’ responses from this activity, the researcher developed the pre-test and post-test by selecting the words from the provisional list made based on the students’ responses. The researcher selected the vocabulary words that the students did not know in the preliminary activity and those words were used to develop the pre-test and post-test. Two days after the students gave their responses, the pre-test (see Appendix E) was administered after the vocabulary checklist activity and without the use of bilingual dictionaries.
In order to avoid any intervention during a one-week interval between the pre-test and post-test, the researcher presented the pre-test to the students as an activity only to avoid any instruction during the one-week interval. The post-test evaluation (see Appendix F) was administered after the one-week interval, and the students used the bilingual dictionaries during the post-test under the guidance of a classroom teacher. The purpose of the pre-test was to measure the students’ performance in reading and writing without using bilingual dictionaries while the post-test was to measure their performance in reading and writing with using bilingual dictionaries. The question items were objective response items with short answers, vocabulary matching, and multiple-choice formats for reading (see Appendix E and F). The question items
(multiple-choice) were created based on the content of students’ textbooks Flying High. There were vocabulary and a topic for writing. Each test took about 40 minutes.
Student survey.
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The Student Survey (see Appendix A) was used to gather data from EFL students after the post-test in order to explore their attitudes toward the utilization of the bilingual dictionary in the classroom. According to Fraenkel et al. (2012), the aim of a survey is to “describe a population’s characteristics such as attitudes, beliefs, and aspects” (p.391). This survey focused on the participants’ attitudes after using a bilingual dictionary; it was administered to all students participants immediately after writing the post-test. In order to collect information from all participants at one time, the researcher decided to employ a “cross-sectional survey” (Creswell,
2014, p.157). This type of survey helps in the “rapid gathering of data within a short period of time” (p.165). Creswell (2014) underscores the suitability of this kind of survey for studies that have limited timelines because “cross-sectional studies can allow the researcher to collect huge amounts of data from different sources in order to determine the presence and magnitude of cause effects of the independent variables on dependent variables” (p.170).
The cross-sectional survey for this study is a modified version of a survey originally created by Wolter (2015), who used it to gather information about the types of information that
ESL students found important to gather from dictionary entries. This researcher modified the wording of some survey questions and added questions that relate to a bilingual dictionary. The survey used in this study consists of 12 statements designed to measure EFL students’ attitudes regarding using bilingual dictionaries in reading and writing (see Appendix A). Each of the 12 statements except for number 7, which is a question, has a range of 5 responses: from Strongly
Agree to Agree, to Neutral, to Disagree, to Strongly Disagree. The survey includes five categories and corresponding statements:
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1. The importance of using bilingual dictionaries 1, 2, 4, 6
2. Type of word information 7 (a, b, c, d, e, f)
3. The necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes 8, 9, 12
4. Adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries 3, 5, 11
5. Teacher’s dictionary-use strategies in classroom 10.
Teachers’ interviews.
The interviews were conducted on the school premises for the first, second, and third- grade high school EFL teachers. The purpose of the interview is to collect data on teachers’ perceptions and, beliefs, and the challenges regarding the impact of using bilingual dictionaries on reading and writing in high school EFL class sessions. When conducting the interviews, the researcher clarified or modified any ambiguous questions as well as asked for elaboration on responses that were deemed important (Fraenkel, et. al, 2012). Each interview took approximately 15 minutes so that the interview did not interrupt too much of the teachers’ time.
The interviews were conducted systematically with each teacher at the teacher’s convenience.
The interviews were conducted individually with a face-to-face approach and audio-recorded in order to ensure data accuracy. The interviews were administered by the researcher. The interview protocol for this study included two sections: the first section involved obtaining the teachers’ background information such as teaching experience and educational background. The second section had eight questions that were focused on the EFL teachers’ perception about the use of a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes (see Appendix C).
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 51
Student interviews.
The purpose of this interview was to determine students’ attitudes, feelings, knowledge, and opinions regarding the impact of using a bilingual dictionary after taking the post-test. The researcher decided to select five students from the 65 participating students. These 5 were invited to participate in the interview. For the selection process, the researcher had divided all participants into three group based on their based on their levels of English proficiency: low, mid-range, and high. The researcher then recruited two students from each proficiency level and asked them to participate in the interview. These interviews were conducted individually by the researcher with a face-to-face approach within the school environment, taking about 15 minutes for each student. The interview was audio-recorded and consisted of short, easy questions (see
Appendix B). The interview protocol included students’ background information and nine questions. The researcher ensured that the interview’s questions were aligned with study’s research questions by focusing on the interview questions on the students’ attitudes toward the use of a bilingual dictionary while reading and writing in EFL classes.
Procedure
The procedures for conducting this research study involve seven steps with each step taking place in the same school and with the same participants. After getting permission from the target high school, the following steps were taken for successful completion of the study.
Step1. A list of words was collected from the current curriculum in high school which formed the vocabulary benchmark for the study. The list consisted of 30 words, 15 words for the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 52 pre-test and 15 words for the post-test.
Step 2. After the list of words was collected, these words were given to the participants in order to check (tick) and translate the words they know from the list, and check (cross) next to the words they do not know. The translation was from English into their home language
(Arabic) in order to make sure they indeed understood the words or not. This activity was administered by the researcher and EFL teachers. It took about 20 minutes.
Step 3. In this step, the words were selected from the provisional list made based on the student’s responses. Then the researcher developed two reading texts and vocabulary for writing for the pre-test and post-test, including those words students said they did not know, so as to understand if the students could separate lexical and contextual meanings of unknown words. In order to get accurate data, the researcher took into account that the vocabulary in the pre-test should be different from the vocabulary in the post-test. However, the kinds of questions in both tests were be the same, aside from the writing task.
Step 4. This is the stage where the pre-test was conducted on the students to understand their prior experience and practice concerning English vocabularies without using bilingual dictionaries. The researcher and EFL teachers distributed the pre-test to the students under the guidance of a classroom teacher. The pre-test took about 45 minutes, and it was administered by the researcher and a group of EFL teachers. The researcher ensured that there would not be any
EFL instruction during one a one-week interval between the pre- and post-test. This was to avoid any possible changes accruing as a result of interventions.
Step 5. This step, during which the post-test was conducted on the students, basically involves the implementation of the post-test procedures on students to understand their class experience with bilingual dictionaries so as to assess the dictionary’s impact on the students’
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 53 vocabulary development. The post-test was administered by the researcher and a group of EFL teachers and took about 45 minutes. IPads were distributed to the students, and the chosen program for translation was Free Translator app. This app provides the Arabic language and serves as the bilingual dictionary for this study.
Step 6. After the post-test, surveys were distributed to the students in the classroom environment, and it took students about 15 minutes to complete the surveys. The surveys were administered by the researcher and a group of EFL teachers.
Step 7. In this step, teacher interviews was conducted within the school environment at the teachers’ convenience. The researcher chose the library for interviewing. Each teacher was asked the same questions in each session. Also, student interviews took place within the school environment. The researcher conducted both interviews, and it took about 15 minutes for each interview.
Data Analysis
After data collection had been completed, the raw data were organized with the student surveys, teachers interview transcripts, and student interview transcripts separately accumulated.
Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. This analysis consists of five parts. The first part is the analysis of the pre-test and post-test scores; in this part, the statistical tool was a paired T-test that is found in Microsoft Excel. This tool allows the researcher to compare the different performances in reading and writing among the EFL participants between the pre-test and post- test. The researcher computed the scores from the pretest to post-test by subtracting each
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 54 student’s score in his pre-test from post-test. This process showed the difference in performance before and after using bilingual dictionaries.
The second part is the analysis of the student surveys. The survey consists of 12 statements. Each statement, except question 7, has a rating scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree). Question 7 has a range of response: from Strongly Agree to Agree, to Neutral, to Disagree, to Strongly Disagree. The students gave one rating per question. All responses were transferred to a spreadsheet and totaled for percentages. MS Excel was used to determine the percentage for each statement. Percentages were then analyzed for patterns or anomalies.
The third part is the analysis of the teachers’ interviews. The interviews were transcribed, and the qualitative results were organized and interpreted through coded thematic analysis. The responses from these interviews were organized into identified themes that best address the corresponding research questions on the teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and understanding of the impact of bilingual dictionaries on EFL students’ reading abilities.
The fourth part is the analysis of the student’s interview. The interviews were transcribed, and the qualitative results were organized and interpreted through coded thematic analysis. The responses from these interviews were organized into identified themes that best address the corresponding research questions on the students’ beliefs, attitudes, and understanding of the impact of using bilingual dictionaries.
The fifth part of data analysis of this study involves the integration of the results of the four previous analysis parts, especially the qualitative and quantitative results, for comparison and complementary analysis. This was done using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software where possible, with some themes rearranged for the integrated thematic analysis.
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Validity and Reliability Considerations
The validity of this study was ensured through four dimensions, as recommended by
Denzin and Lincoln (2003), for a high-quality generalizable research study: i.e., construct validity, internal validity, external validity, and reliability. Since construct validity addresses the conceptualization and measuring of the concepts under investigation, the researcher ensured that the impact of dictionary use captures only the bilingual types of dictionaries used in Saudi
Arabia which have English-Arabic translations. Moreover, data were gathered from several sources (surveys, pre-test/post-test, and face-to-face interviews) so as to ascertain the relationships between the constructs under investigation. Since internal validity deals with the unambiguousness of the interpretation of the findings, the researcher ensured that all students were pre and post tested and administrated the treatment using bilingual dictionaries.
Additionally, the researcher ensured that the findings were indeed given a true interpretation by cross-checking with the findings from similar previous studies on the topic.
To address the issue of external validity that deals with the generalization of the study findings, the researcher ensured that the subjectivity of the qualitative part of this study was alleviated by the cause-effect investigation of the quantitative part which is more objective. Both internal and external validity increase the scope of replication for the study findings. Fraenkel et al. (2012) show that “reliability refers to the consistency of the scores obtained how consistent they are for each individual from one administration of an instrument to another and from one set of items to another” (p. 155). To ensure this, the research instruments were tested for suitability to collect credible data in the pre-test and post-test. The findings were analyzed using credible processing tools with expertise.
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Section 4: Results
This section describes the results leading to the findings of this study that address the following research questions: What is the impact on reading and writing of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in Saudi high schools? What are the high school students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia? What are the high school EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi
Arabia? Results also determine findings leading to correlations and the degree of the linkages before and after using a bilingual dictionary among EFL students on reading and writing. In order to show the results clearly, the researcher presents the results in the same four parts and sequence as the data were analyzed: part one the analysis of the pre-test and post-test scores; part two the analysis of the student surveys, part three the analysis of the students’ interviews; and part four the analysis of the teachers’ interview.
Results from the Pre-test and Post-test Scores
The pre-test and post-test scores were collected from 65 EFL students in the target high school. Those tests were aimed to measure the students’ performance in reading and writing without and with using a bilingual dictionary. Analysis of the scores aims to answer the research question of the impact on reading and writing of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in
Saudi high school. The scores for the pre-test and post-test were analyzed by using t-Test: paired two sample for means. This analysis examined and compared mean scores between the pre-test and post-test. Table 1 provides an overview of the mean scores in the pre-test and post-test for
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 57 each section of the test. According to the data in Table 1, the total reading score for the participating students (n=65) in the pre-test was 5.2 (52%), while in the post-test was 7.88
(78%). The total writing score in the pre-test was 1.99 (39%), while in the post-test was 3.02
(61%). The total test score in the pre-test was 7.19 (51%) while in the post-test was 10.94 (78%).
As for the mean score change between the pre-test and post-test, it was (26%) increase in the reading section and it was a 22% increase in the writing section.
Table 1 Mean Test Scores Analysis (n=65) Mean score Mean score Mean score Mean score Mean score % Section of the Test Pre-test /15 Post-test /15 Pre-test % Post-test % Change (+/-) Reading A) 1 0.62 0.97 62% 97% 35% 2 0.5 0.94 50% 94% 44% 3 0.53 0.82 53% 82% 29% 4 0.51 0.76 51% 76% 25% Reading B) 1 0.56 0.71 56% 71% 15% 2 0.51 0.7 51% 70% 19% 3 0.5 0.74 50% 74% 24% 4 0.48 0.71 48% 71% 23% 5 0.51 0.77 51% 77% 26% 6 0.48 0.76 48% 76% 28% Total Reading Score 5.2 7.88 52% 78% 26% Writing A) 1 0.48 0.85 48% 85% 37% 2 0.47 0.77 47% 77% 30% 3 0.57 0.76 57% 76% 19% Writing B) paragraph 0.47 0.68 47% 68% 21% Total Writing Score 1.99 3.06 39% 61% 22% Total Test Score 7.19 10.94 51% 78% 27%
Because the only variable to be changed between the pre-test and post-test is the students using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic), this analysis indicates that the use of a bilingual dictionary by EFL students in a Saudi High School produced a significant increase (over 25%) in reading, writing, and total test scores.
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Results From Students’ Surveys
The purpose of this students’ survey was to find out the students’ attitudes towards the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia. The survey consisted of 12 statements constructed around five categories:
1. The importance of using bilingual dictionaries 1, 2, 4, 6
2. Type of word information 7 (a, b, c, d, e, f)
3. The necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes 8, 9, 12
4. Adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries 3, 5, 11
5. Teacher’s dictionary-use strategies in classroom 10.
Each of these categories now become a theme for the data analysis. Student responses to the survey covered a 5 point range from strongly disagree to neutral to strongly agree. Responses for each question were combined, and a percentage response for each question was calculated based on n=65 for all respondents. The following set of Figures display the percentage response results for each statement and are grouped under the related five themes.
Theme one: The importance of using bilingual dictionaries.
Four statements (survey #1, 2, 4, 6) provide responses related to this theme of the importance of using bilingual dictionaries. Figure 1 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement. “It is important for you to know the translation of a word.”
According to the survey, results,74% of the participating students strongly agreed with the importance of translation, and 25% agreed. Only 1% of the students surveyed felt neutral, and no
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 59 participating students marked that they disagree and strongly disagree with the importance of word translation.
It is important for you to know the translation of a word 0% 1% 0% Strongly agree Agree 25% Neutral Disagree
74% Strongly disagree
Figure1. Statement 1
Figure 2 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “I think bilingual Dictionary (English-Arabic) use is helpful for new words.” According to the survey results, the majority of the students (n=65) strongly agreed (45%) and agreed (41%). While there were a few of the students who disagreed (5%), with the statement, no one strongly disagreed
(0%). However, 9% of the students marked neutral.
I think bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) use is helpful for learning new words 5% 0% 9% Strongly agree Agree 45% Neutral 41% Disagree Strongly disagree
Figure 2. Statement 2
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 60
Figure 3 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “Bilingual dictionary can improve my reading comprehension.” According to the survey results, the majority of the students (41%) agreed and (28%) strongly agreed. While 20% of the participating students surveyed felt neutral. However, 8% of the students disagreed with this statement while there were a few students (3%) who strongly disagreed.
Bilingual dictionary can improve my reading comprehension 8% 3% Strongly agree
28% Agree 20% Neutral Disagree 41% Strongly disagree
Figure 3. Statement 4
Figure 4 provides a graphic display of the EFL students responses to the statement, “My understanding of word translations ( English-Arabic) from the bilingual dictionary guides my literary appreciation.” According to the survey results, 43% of the participating students strongly agreed and agreed. However, 9% of the students marked neutral while there were a few of the students (5%) who disagreed.
My understanding of word translations (Arabic-English) fromthe bilingual dictionary guides my literary appreciation
5% 0% Strongly agree
9% Agree 43% Neutral Disagree 43% Strongly disagree
Figure 4. Statement 6
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Table 2 shows and summarizes the overall students’ attitudes regarding the importance of using bilingual dictionaries. Agree and strongly agree were combined to be the positive attitudes while disagree and strongly disagree combined to be the negative attitudes. In statement 1, there were
64 (97%) of the participating students who had positive trends of the importance of the translation of a word while the negative trends were 0% and only one student felt neutral (1%).
In statement two, 46 (85%) of the students had positive trends that the use of a bilingual dictionary is helpful regarding learning new vocabulary words while three (4%) of them had negative attitudes and six (31%) of the students felt neutral. In statement 4, there were 45 (69%) of the students confirmed that a bilingual dictionary improves their reading comprehension while
7 of the participants had negative trends (10%), and 13 of the participants were felt neutral
(20%). In statement 6, 56 (86%) of the participating students asserted that using the translation of a word from English into the Arabic language has lots of sound effects while three of them had negative attitudes (4%). Only six (9%) of the participants felt neutral.
Table 2 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding the Importance of Using Bilingual Dictionaries Negative Positive Items Neutral Attitudes Attitudes 1-It is important to me to know the translation 0% 1% 97% of a word. 2- I think bilingual Dictionary (English- 4% 13% 85% Arabic) use is helpful for learning new words. 4- Bilingua1 dictionary can improve my 10% 20% 69% reading comprehension. 6- My understanding of word translations (English- Arabic) from the bilingual 4% 9% 86% dictionary guides my literary appreciation.
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The data for this theme indicate that the participating students see a great importance for using a bilingual dictionary for translating a word from English to Arabic so as to understand its lexical and contextual meanings. A total of 97% of the participants agreed that knowing the translation of a word was important, and 85% agreed that using a bilingual dictionary is helpful for learning new words, but only 69% agreed that the dictionary is helpful for improving reading comprehension. Data analysis also shows that 86% of the participants feel that bilingual dictionaries, English-Arabic, help students understand word translations which in turn guides their literary appreciation. Based on the data about this theme, almost all participants agree on the importance of word translation, but 13% are neutral or unsure about the helpfulness of a bilingual dictionary for learning new words, and 20% feel neutral or unsure about the helpfulness of a bilingual dictionary for improving reading comprehension. Therefore analysis of this data finds that the importance of using bilingual dictionaries is accepted by most but not all participants, and the greatest importance is for learning new words (vocabulary development).
Theme two: Types of word information.
Question 7 (a, b, c, d, e, f) provides responses related to this theme of the types of word information: spelling, definition, example/expressions, part of speech, pronunciation, and collections. Figure 5 provides a graphic display of the EFL students responses to the item (a),
“When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? a- spelling
(what letters are in the word).” According to the survey results, 28% of the participating students answered with the most frequent “always” and “usually” while 18% of the students answered
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 63 with “rarely”. There were 15% of the students marked “sometimes” and 9% of the students answered with “never”.
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? a- Spelling (what letters are in the word) .
9% Always 28% Usually 19% Sometimes Rarely 16% 28% Never
Figure 5. Question 7-a
Figure 6 provides a graphic display of the EFL students responses to the item, “When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? b- Definition (what the words mean).” According to the survey results, the majority of the students (n=65) marked the highest frequency “always” (70%) and 17% of the students answered with “usually.” There were 8% of the students marked “sometimes” while 3% of the students answered with “rarely”. Only 1% of the students marked “ never” with this item.
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? b. Definition (what the word means). 3% 1% 8% Always Usually 17% Sometimes Rarely 71% Never
Figure 6. Question 7-b
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 64
Figure 7 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the item, “when you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? c. example/expressions ( the word in a sentence or part of a sentence).” According to the survey results, 29% of the participating students answered with “always” while 23% of the students marked “sometimes”. There were
20% of the participants answered with “usually” and “rarely” with the item, and 8% of the students marked “never”.
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for?c. Example/expressions (the word in a sentence or part of a sentence) 8% Always 29% Usually 20% Sometimes Rarely 23% 20% Never
Figure 7. Question 7-c
Figure 8 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the item, “when you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? d. part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).” According to the survey results, the majority of the students (n=65) marked
“always” 26% and 23% of the students answered with “usually”. There were students 22% who marked “rarely” while 17% of the students answered with “sometimes”. However, 12% of the participants marked “never” with the item.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 65
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for?d. Part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) 12% Always 26% Usually 22% Sometimes Rarely 23% 17% Never
Figure 8. Question 7-d
Figure 9 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the item, “when you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? e. Pronunciation (how to say the word).” According to the survey results, 28% of the participating students marked “always” and
23% of the students responded “sometimes”. There were 21% of the students marked “usually ”, and 19% of them responded “never” look up for the pronunciation. However, 9% of the students marked “rarely”.
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? e.Pronunciation (how to say the word) Always 19% Usually 28% Sometimes 9% Rarely 23% 21% Never
Figure 9. Question 7-e
Figure 10 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the item, “When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? f. collocations (what other words a word is used with).” According to the survey results, 49% of the participating students
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 66 responded “never” look up for the collocations of a word while 22% of the students marked
“rarely”. There were 15% of the students responded “usually” and 9% recorded “sometimes”.
Only 5% of the participating students marked “always” for the collocations.
When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? f. Collocations (what other words a word is 5% used with) Always Usually 15% Sometimes 49% 9% Rarely Never 22%
Figure 10. Question 7-f
Table 3 shows and summarizes overall students’ attitudes regarding the frequency of using types of word information. The responses included: always, usually, sometimes, rarely, and never. If a respondent answered always and usually, it indicates that EFL students have positive attitudes. If a respondent answered rarely and never, it indicates that EFL students have negative attitudes while if a respondent answered sometimes, it indicates that EFL students are felt neutral.
According to the Table 3, 57 of the participating students had positive attitudes (86%) towards the definition of a word. However, 46 (71%) of the participating students had negative trends toward collocations. While there were 32 (49%) of the students who had positive attitudes toward the examples/expression, and part of speech. There were 18 of the participating students
28% use a bilingual dictionary to know the correct spelling and 18 (27%) of the participating students always listen to the pronunciation of a word. Following this, 17 (26%) of participants look a word up to find the part of speech such as noun, verb, adverb or adjective.
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Table 3 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding the Frequency of Using Types of Word Information 7- When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always Items Negative Attitudes Neutral Positive Attitudes a-Spelling (what letters are in 27 % 15 % 56 % the word) . b-Definition (what the word 4% 7 % 87 % means). c-Example/ expressions (the word in a sentence or part of a 27 % 23 % 49 % sentence). d-Part of speech (noun, verb, 33% 16% 49% adjective, etc.) e-Pronunciation (how to say 27% 23% 48% the word). f-Collocations (what other 71% 15% 14% words a word is used with).
This student survey identified six types of word information that students could get from a bilingual dictionary: spelling, definition, part of speech, pronunciation, and collections. The data for this theme indicate that 87% of the participating students use bilingual dictionaries always or usually to find the definition of a word, while 56% use them usually or always to look for the correct spelling. The three types of word information of example, part of speech, and pronunciation are looked for usually and always by 48% to 49% of the participants: about half.
However, from 27% to 33% of the participants use bilingual dictionaries rarely to never for the three types of word information of example, part of speech, and pronunciation. Of all the types of word information, the most rarely to never used and the one that most students (71%) had a negative attitude towards is the idea of looking for word collocations in a bilingual dictionary.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 68
Therefore analysis of this data finds that of the six types of word information that students could get from using a bilingual dictionary, the top piece of word information looked for is definition
(87%) followed by spelling (56%) as number two; the least looked for is collocations (14%).
Looking for example, part of speech, and pronunciation are tied for third place with almost half
(48-49%) of the students using bilingual dictionaries to look and half not to use them to look.
Theme three: The necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes.
Three statements (8, 9, 12) provide responses related to this theme of the necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes. Figure 11 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “I should use a dictionary for more in English class.”
According to the survey results, 31% of the participating students strongly agreed with the necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes, and 26% agreed. However, 20% of the participating students surveyed felt natural. There were 18% of the participating students disagreed while 5% of the students strongly disagreed.
I should use a dictionary for more in English class 5%
Strongly agree 18% 31% Agree Neutral 20% Disagree 26% Strongly disagree
Figure 11. Statement 8
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 69
Figure 12 provides a graphic display of the EFL students responses to the statement, “My school should make the use of a bilingual dictionary during EFL lessons mandatory,” According to the survey results, the majority of the participating students (n=65) strongly agreed (45%) and agreed (34%). While there were 13% of the students felt neutral and only 8% of the students disagreed with the statement, no one strongly disagreed (0%).
My school should make the use of bilingual dictionary during EFL lessons mandatory 0%
8% Strongly agree
13% Agree 45% Neutral
Disagree 34% Strongly disagree
Figure 12. Question 9
Figure 13 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “more needs to be done in terms of curriculum development and teaching methodology to increase the efficiency of using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes.” According to the survey results, the majority of the student strongly agreed (41%) and agreed (25%). However, 19% of the participating students felt neutral and 12% of the students disagreed. Only 3% of the students strongly disagreed and one student skipped this question.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 70
More needs to be done in terms of curriculum development and teaching methodology to increase the efficiency of using bilingual dictionary in EFL classes. 3% Strongly agree
12% Agree 25% Neutral 19% Disagree
41% Strongly disagree
Figure 13. Statement 12
Table 4 shows and summarizes the overall students’ attitudes towards the necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes. Agree and strongly agree were integrated to be the positive attitude and disagree and strongly agree to be the negative attitudes towards the importance of using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes. In statement eight, there were 37 of the participating students had positive trends (57%), and 13 of the students had negative attitudes
(23%), and also 13 (20%) were felt neutral. In statement nine, there were 51 of the participants who had positive trends (79%) regarding the bilingual dictionary that should be mandatory in
EFL class while five of the students had negative attitudes (8%). However, eight (13%) of the participating students were felt neutral. In statement twelve, 44 (65%) of the participating students had positive trends, and ten (15%) of the participating students had negative attitudes towards the increasing of the efficiency of using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes while 12
(19%) of them were felt neutral.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 71
Table 4 Students’ Overall Attitudes Regarding the Necessity of Using Bilingual Dictionaries in EFL Classes Negative Positive Items Neutral Attitude Attitude 8- I should use a dictionary for more in English 23% 20% 57% class. 9- My school should make the use of bilingual 8% 13% 79% dictionary during EFL lessons mandatory 12- More needs to be done in terms of curriculum development and teaching methodology to 15% 19% 65% increase the efficiency of using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes.
The data analysis for this theme indicate that 79% of the participants agreed in the school- established policy framework for the use of bilingual dictionaries and 65% of the participating students agreed in the curriculum driven policies that give more emphasis on the use of bilingual dictionaries in the EFL class, but only 57% agreed in self-driven initiatives to use bilingual dictionaries in EFL class. Therefore analysis of this data finds that the participating students believe in the externally-sourced drive to use bilingual dictionaries during English lessons. From their attitudes, it can be deduced that some of the participating students do not fully think they are self-obligated to use bilingual dictionaries during EFL classes prompting increased awareness of the importance of using bilingual dictionaries during the EFL classes.
Theme four: Adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries.
Three statements (3, 5, 11) provide responses related to this theme of the adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries. Figure 14 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “When I looked up a word in the bilingual dictionary, I found it easily and quickly.” According to the survey results, 49% of the participating students agreed
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 72 with the ease of using a bilingual dictionary, and 26% strongly agreed. There were 13% of the students who surveyed felt neutral while 12% of the students disagreed with this statement, no one strongly disagreed (0%).
When I looked up a word in the bilingual dictionary, I found it 0% easily and quickly 12% Strongly agree 26% 13% Agree Neutral Disagree 49% Strongly disagree
Figure 14. Statement 3
Figure 15 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “I know how to use a bilingual dictionary.” According to the survey results, the majority of students (n=65) disagreed (31%) and (24%) agreed. While there were 20% of the students who strongly agreed with this statement and 14% of them surveyed felt neutral. However, there were 11% of the students strongly disagreed.
I know how to use bilingual dictionary
Strongly agree 11% 20% Agree
Neutral 31% 24% Disagree
14% Strongly disagree
Figure 15. Statement 5
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 73
Figure 16 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “I think I have had enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary.” According to the survey results, the majority of the participating students agreed (45%), and 32% of the students strongly agreed.
However, 12% of the students disagreed while 9% of them surveyed felt neutral. Only 2% of the students marked strongly disagreed.
I think I have had enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary 2% Strongly agree 12% Agree 9% 32% Neutral Disagree 45% Strongly disagree
Figure 16. Statement 11
Table 5 shows and summarizes the overall students’ attitudes towards adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries. Agree and strongly agree were combined to be the positive attitudes while disagreeing and strongly disagreeing combined to be the negative attitudes. In statement three,
49 (75%) of the students had positive attitudes toward the ease of using a bilingual dictionary when they looked a word up, while eight (12%) of the students had negative attitudes. Eight
(13%) of the students were felt neutral. In statement five, 29 (44%) of the participating students know how to use a bilingual dictionary while 27 (42%) of them had negative attitudes. Nine
(14%) of them were felt neutral. In item eleven, 50 (76%) of participating students had positive attitudes, and nine (14%) of the students had negative attitudes while six (9%) of the students felt neutral.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 74
Table 5 Overall students’ Attitudes Regarding Adequate Training to use bilingual dictionaries Negative Neutral Positive Items Attitudes Attitudes 3- When I looked up a word in the bilingual 12% 75% 13% dictionary, I found it easily and quickly 5- I know how to use bilingual dictionary 42% 14% 44% 11- I think I have had enough training on how to 14% 9% 76% use a bilingual dictionary
The data analysis for this theme indicate that 76% of the participating students agreed that they had received enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary and 75% of the participants agreed that they can easily and quickly find a word in a bilingual dictionary. There were only
44% of the participating students fully understand how to use a bilingual dictionary while 42% do not know; these numbers suggest inadequate training or learning on the use of a bilingual dictionary. Therefore analysis of this data finds that almost all participants agreed that they have adequate training or self-learning on how to use bilingual dictionaries, but some of the participants disagreed that they have enough training regarding the use of a bilingual dictionary.
It seems that the teachers’ training methodology and approaches may not be well connected to the students’ skills improvement as far as the use of dictionaries is concerned.
Theme five: Teachers’ dictionary use strategies in the classroom.
One statement (10) provides responses related to this theme of the teachers’ dictionary use strategies in the classroom. Figure 17 provides a graphic display of the EFL student responses to the statement, “the teacher’s dictionary-use strategies employed in class are the main driving force behind the utilization of bilingual dictionary.” According to the survey results, the majority
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 75 of the participating students (35%) agreed and (26%) strongly agreed. However, 16% of the students surveyed felt neutral. While there were 15% of the students disagreed and (8%) strongly disagreed with the statement.
The teacher’s dictionary-use strategies employed in class are the main driving force behind the utilization of bilingual dictionary
8% Strongly agree 15% 26% Agree
Neutral 16% Disagree 35% Strongly disagree
Figure 17. Statement 10
Table 6 shows and summarizes the overall students’ attitudes regarding teachers’ dictionary use strategies in the classroom. Agree and strongly agree were combined to be positive attitudes while disagree and disagree and strongly disagree were combined to be negative attitudes. It can be seen that 40 (61%) of the students participating had positive attitudes towards teachers’ dictionary use strategies in the classroom while 15 (22%) of them had negative attitudes. Only ten of the students were felt neutral (15%).
Table 6 Overall Students’ Attitudes Regarding Teachers’ Dictionary Use Strategies in Classroom Item Negative Neutral Positive Attitudes Attitudes 10- The teacher’s dictionary-use strategies employed in class are the 22% 15% 61% main driving force behind the utilization of bilingual dictionary
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 76
The data analysis for this theme indicate that 61% of the participating students positively agree in the teacher’s classroom dictionary use strategies, but 22% of the participants disagree that their teacher’s dictionary strategies in classrooms were not up to the desired standards. This attitude means that the participating students have a negative impression of the teacher’s methodologies and approaches when it comes to dictionary use in the classroom. Given that 15% of the students do not know whether the teacher’s dictionary-use strategies in class are good or not, it can be said that quite a significant number of student are indifferent on the issue of dictionary use approaches. This indifference may stem from inadequate dictionary-use training or general dislike for the subject or dictionary use. Therefore analysis of this data finds that teachers’ classroom dictionary use strategies are accepted by most but not all participating students.
Based on the findings for the five individual themes in this set of data from the student survey, the following findings can be determined for this data set as a whole. Almost all participating students find it is important to translate a word from English to Arabic by using a bilingual dictionary so as to understand its contextual meanings which in turn guides EFL students’ literary appreciation. This attitude toward knowing the meaning of a new English word by using a bilingual dictionary account for the significant number of the participating students who focused on the definition of a word from the six types of word information. The participants also agreed that using a bilingual dictionary is helpful for learning new words and for improving reading comprehension. Given the importance of a bilingual dictionary in understanding English vocabulary words, the majority of the participants agreed that bilingual dictionaries should be mandatory during EFL lesson, and the curriculum driven policies should give more emphasis on the use of bilingual dictionaries in the EFL class. Most of the participants also had a strong
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 77 positive belief that they had received enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary and they can easily and quickly find a word in a bilingual dictionary, maybe showing high levels of training or self-learning on how to use bilingual dictionaries. However, given that only 44% of the participants fully understand how to use a bilingual dictionary, It seems that the teachers’ training methodology and approaches may not be well connected to the students’ skills improvement as far as the use of dictionaries is concerned. The findings also show that many students (61%) positively believe in the teacher’s classroom dictionary use strategies but compared to teaching objectives, this is not up to the desired target, above 85%.
Results From Students’ Interviews
The purpose of the students’ interview was to support students’ survey and find out the students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries. The interviews also contributed to answering the research question: What are the high school students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia? Five EFL students were interviewed by the researcher and the interview took place at the same high school. All the participating students are Saudi students, and they are at the same high school. The participating students were chosen based on their English level proficiency. The interviews were arranged by EFL supervisor, EFL teachers, and the researcher. Table 1 shows each student’s background information included their age, grade, and their level of English proficiency.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 78
Table 7 EFL Students’ Background Information Name Age Grade English Level Student A 16 12th Beginning Student B 17 12th Beginning Student C 17 12th Intermediate Student D 16 12th Intermediate Student E 17 12th Advance
Student A is an EFL male student in the high school. He is 16 years old. His English level proficiency is beginning. He reported that the bilingual dictionary is essential as it always assists and helps him to find the meaning of English words. He indicated that he always uses a bilingual dictionary in order to understand the passages in reading and when he writes a composition in writing skill. Student A mentioned that he always asks his EFL teacher the meaning of new words found in the lesson. Thus, in this case, a bilingual dictionary is an excellent reference tool in reading comprehension and writing. He said: “ I struggled with those new vocabulary words when I did the pre-test, but in the post-test, I did well.” Therefore, student
A believed that using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes would enhance his vocabulary words and improve reading comprehension and writing. However, there were some challenges that he encountered when he used a bilingual dictionary. For example, multiple meanings of a word in a bilingual dictionary always make him confused about which meaning is appropriate for the target word.
Student B is an EFL male student in the high school. He is 17 years old. His English level proficiency is beginning. He reported that when he uses the bilingual dictionary whether in
EFL classes or out the class, he feels comfortable where he can look up the English words and find the meaning of them in his home language. Student B always uses a bilingual dictionary
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 79 because of his lack of vocabulary. He firmly believes that a bilingual dictionary is an excellent tool for EFL students as the dictionary is imperative in helping to understanding the meaning of the new English vocabulary words. Student B stated that by using a bilingual dictionary in the post-test, it helped him to look up the unknown vocabulary words. He reported that when he did the pre-test, he struggled with vocabulary words and he skipped them. Student B reported that he sometimes faces some of challenged when he looks up the meaning of a word. For instance, he indicated that there are many of examples of the words that make him confused when he finds the equivalent of a word.
Student C is an EFL male student in the high school. He is 17 years old. His English level proficiency is intermediate. Student C recorded that a bilingual dictionary is helpful to find the meaning of English words that do not have a translation in an English textbook. He said: “ I consider a bilingual dictionary is very important to me where it supports and enhances my new vocabulary words in reading and writing in EFL classes.” Student C reported that he sometimes encounters some challenges when he uses a bilingual dictionary such as multiple definitions for the English words and part of speech. On the other hand, Student C suggested that use of a bilingual dictionary should be mandatory in English class where it can help students to understand the passages when they read, and it provides them with translating when they write a composition.
Student D is an EFL male student in the high school. He is 16 years old. His English level proficiency is intermediate. Student D reported that the use of a bilingual dictionary in English class helps him to understand the meaning of the new words. Therefore, he always uses a bilingual dictionary during reading and writing in EFL classes. Student D said: “ when I use a bilingual dictionary, I can improve and enhance my English vocabulary words by translating the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 80 new words.” He also suggested that EFL teachers should provide the students with the bilingual dictionary use skills because some of the students do not know how to choose the correct meaning of the target word and how to distinguish between the part of speech. He also said: “ I sometimes encounter some of the challenges that make me confused such as multiple meanings of the word that make me consult my EFL teacher.” Student D recorded that he hopes that EFL teachers increase the efficiency of the use of bilingual dictionary through reading and writing and allow EFL students to use the dictionary in all time during EFL class.
Student E is an EFL male student in the high school. He is 17 years old. His English level proficiency in advance. Student A mentioned that a bilingual dictionary has improved his vocabulary words and he always uses it through English homework. He said: “ I know that a bilingual dictionary is essential to me because it helps and improves me to explore the new
English word.” Because the use of a bilingual dictionary is not mandatory in EFL classes, student E said: “ My English proficiency is an advance, but I notice some of my classmates always ask me to provide them with the meaning of unknown vocabulary words because I bring my bilingual dictionary in the classroom.” Student E mentioned: “ I believe that I learn better when I use a bilingual dictionary because the advantages of the utilization of a bilingual dictionary are easy and clear to me as an EFL student.” Student E stated that he faces some challenges when using a bilingual dictionary such as multiple meanings of a word. However, he considered that this challenge is not an obstacle which prevents the use of a bilingual dictionary in EFL classroom.
Based on the findings in this set of data from the students’ interview, the following findings can be determined for this data set as a whole. The beginning EFL participating students agreed that a bilingual dictionary is a great reference tool which in turn enhance vocabulary
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 81 words and improve reading comprehension. Also, the participants found a bilingual dictionary helped them to understand the new vocabulary words in the post-test. The intermediate EFL participating students also see a great importance for using a bilingual dictionary for translating a new English vocabulary word that they encounter during reading and writing in EFL class. The advance EFL student agreed that a bilingual dictionary helps him define unknown vocabulary words. Therefore analysis of this data finds that the majority of the participating students, whether at the beginning, intermediate or advanced proficiency level, confirm that the use of a bilingual dictionary is very important to them for help to translate a new English vocabulary word. This strong use for definition translation may account for the over 70% of the participating students do not use a bilingual dictionary for collocation; the most prevalent use being over 85% of the participants to find the definition of a word. Therefore the interview findings are clearly correlated with the students’ survey findings which confirm that the EFL students’ attitudes were positive toward the impact of using a bilingual dictionary primarily for word definition in EFL classes.
Results From Teachers’ Interviews
The purpose of the teachers’ interview was to find out the EFL teachers’ perceptions regarding the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms. It also aimed to answer the research question: What are the high school EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia?. In order to show the results in orderly and clear steps, the researcher presents the steps as the follows. Five EFL teachers participated in this study, and they are at the same school where the researcher conducted the study. The researcher
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 82 interviewed the target EFL teachers face to face. In order to determine the relevant personal information of the EFL teachers, the researcher established their background information by the first few questions in the interviews and reports in Table 8.
Table 8 EFL Teachers’ Background Information Name Age Academic Qualification Experience Years Teacher A 30 Bachelor 8 years Teacher B 36 Bachelor 13 years Teacher C 29 Bachelor 7 years Teacher D 42 Bachelor 20 years Teacher E 26 Bachelor 3 years
Teacher A is a 30-year-old, he is an EFL male teacher in high school. He has been teaching English as a foreign language for eight years. Teacher A believes that the use of bilingual dictionaries considers one of the fundamental and essential tools for EFL students. He reported that he prefers the bilingual dictionaries because they provide the meaning of vocabulary words in students’ home language (Arabic). Teacher A stated that he advises his students to use a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes so as to help them to find the meaning of unknown words when they read and write. However, there are some challenges when they use a bilingual dictionary. Teacher A said: “ The majority of EFL students face some of the challenges which effective hindering use of bilingual dictionaries during EFL class, for example, they are confused when they find more than one meaning in the bilingual dictionaries.” Thus, he mentioned that they do not know which definition should be chosen when they read or write. In terms of dictionary-use skills, teacher A said: “ I do not think that EFL students need dictionary- use skills because they know how to use it. However, they may need to develop their skills of prediction when they face new vocabulary words.” Therefore, he stated that each EFL teacher
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 83 has well training to explain all the necessary skills that EFL students need such as part of speech and collocations.
Teacher B is 36 years old; he is an EFL male teacher in high school. He has been teaching English as a foreign language for thirteen years. Teacher B said: “ I prefer monolingual dictionaries in high school because the student should know the new vocabulary words in
English language instead of the Arabic language.” He suggested that a bilingual dictionary should be used only in elementary school as the students are considered as beginners. However, in middle and high school should be utilized with monolingual dictionaries. Teacher B adduced that using a bilingual dictionary may hinder the EFL students to use the English language in EFL class. Therefore, he said: “ I always provide my students with the meaning of a word in the
English language that improves their English proficiency.” Teacher B mentioned that a monolingual dictionary explains the meaning in English language easily. Therefore, he mentioned that the students do not need to be helped by using a bilingual dictionary. On the other hand, teacher B confirmed that most of the bilingual dictionaries appear to provide ambiguous and wrong information in Arabic language such as definitions of the words.
Teacher C is 29 years old; he is an EFL male teacher in high school. He has been teaching English as a foreign language for seven years. Teacher C reported that he strongly prefers a bilingual dictionary, especially in high schools. As he said: “ Based on my previous experiences in teaching English as a second language, I found a bilingual dictionary is an essential tool for EFL students.” He recorded that by using a bilingual dictionary, students can understand the unknown words that they face through reading. He also said:
When EFL students use a bilingual dictionary in EFL classes, they will enhance and
develop their vocabulary words during English class. I noticed when I provided my
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 84
students with a bilingual dictionary in reading and writing skills; they understand most of
the content of the passages. On the other hand, if EFL teachers provide their students
with a bilingual dictionary in English class, they will help them to understand the difficult
words and help them to do their homework out of the classroom. Therefore, EFL students
should consult a bilingual dictionary continually so as to help them to learn better.
Teacher C recorded that EFL students do not need dictionary-use skills, but they may need to learn some basics on how to deal with a bilingual dictionary regarding definitions, pronunciation, and part of speech where those skills can be challenges to the students when they use a bilingual dictionary. Thus, he confirmed that all EFL teachers are well trained on dictionary-use skills when they studied in the department of English language.
Teacher D is 42 years old; he is an EFL male teacher in high school. He has been teaching English as a foreign language for twenty years. Teacher D has a long experience in teaching English as a foreign language in most of the high schools. He reported that he taught the previous English curriculum that was provided with translation (English-Arabic) of the new vocabulary words at the end of the textbooks. However, after changing English curricula in
Saudi Arabia, he said: “ EFL students always struggle with the new vocabulary words that are not supported by their home language. So, I strongly prefer a bilingual dictionary and recommend my students to use it.”. With regard to the challenges that face EFL students when they use a bilingual dictionary, teacher D recorded that most of the EFL students face some challenges when they use a bilingual dictionary, such as the multiple definitions of a word.
Therefore, he stated that EFL students should be trained by their EFL teacher who are well trained on how to choose the correct definition of the target word which is relevant to the context. Teacher D mentioned that because of lack of encouraging students to use the bilingual
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 85 dictionary in the classroom, students would neglect the efficient use of a bilingual dictionary during EFL class. For this reasons, teacher D suggested some of the strategies that would be able to stimulate students to use bilingual dictionary through reading and writing; he reported that
EFL teachers should combine a bilingual dictionary with English teaching so as to enhance students’ efficiency of using a bilingual dictionary in reading and writing. In addition to raising students’ awareness of using this strategy.
Teacher E is 26 years old; he is an EFL male teacher in high school. He has been teaching English as a foreign language for three years. Teacher E reported that a bilingual dictionary is a useful tool to learn English language as a second language. Thus, he said:” I prefer a bilingual dictionary in EFL class because it helps EFL students to find clear understandable definitions for vocabulary words.” He also stated that EFL students should use a bilingual dictionary so as to enhance and improve their vocabulary words when they read and write in the classroom. Teacher E reported that when EFL students use a bilingual dictionary in their EFL classes, they would have a positive impact on their language performance whether in reading or writing. Therefore, He said: “ I always encourage my students to use a bilingual dictionary during EFL classes so as to help them to learn better.” Regarding the dictionary use skills and its challenges, teacher E stated that a bilingual dictionary sometimes should be trained by EFL teachers during the process of consultation. Therefore, he reported that some of EFL students need to recognize how to use a bilingual dictionary regarding the type of word information that always hinders students when they use a bilingual dictionary. As for the challenges that hinder the effective use of bilingual dictionaries during EFL class, teacher E said:
“ I think the challenges that ban the efficient use of bilingual dictionaries are the lack of
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 86 encouraging students to the use dictionaries and failure to provide EFL students with those bilingual dictionaries.”
Based on the findings in this set of data from the teachers’ interview, the following findings can be determined for this data set as a whole. Most of all the EFL teachers in this interview agreed that a bilingual dictionary is very important in EFL class as most of the EFL students in Saudi Arabia face significant challenges to understand a new English vocabulary words during reading and writing, and these dictionaries are indispensable and can be enhanced and developed their learning English language especially in high school. However, teacher B one, of the more experienced teachers, disagreed with the idea of using a bilingual dictionary in middle and high schools, and he prefers a monolingual dictionary. Teacher B also see that a bilingual dictionary should be only in elementary school because the EFL students are beginning.
On the other hand, teacher D who has also been teaching for more than 10 years, feel that a bilingual dictionary should be used in all grade levels. According to the experiences of the other
EFL participating teachers, those who have been teaching less than 10 years, they also show strong support for the use of bilingual dictionary at all grade levels. These EFL teachers see great importance of the use of a bilingual dictionary for reading and writing in EFL class in Saudi high school, and they think it is difficult for EFL students to get a precise understanding of a new
English vocabulary word without using a bilingual dictionary. Therefore while the EFL teachers interviewed do not all agree about which grades should use bilingual dictionaries, they do all agree that the use of a bilingual dictionary as important for learning word meaning and vocabulary. However, most of the teachers also felt that students did not need instruction or strategies on how to use the bilingual dictionary. This finding appears to contrast with some
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 87 findings in the student surveys and interviews that show the student feel they did not have enough or sufficient teaching about strategies to use the dictionary.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 88
Section 5: Discussion
Overview of Study and Findings
The purpose of the current research study is to explore the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) for reading and writing in a Saudi high school. In order to discuss the findings of this study, it is helpful to repeat the research questions for this study:
(1) What is the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in Saudi high school
in reading and writing?
(2) What are the high school students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in
EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia?
(3) What are the high school teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in
EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia?
Participants for this study were 65 Saudi EFL students and five EFL teachers. The study was conducted in a high school in Saudi Arabia. This study produced eight (8) findings in response to these research questions.
The study involved four sets of data collections using four instruments: pre-test and post- test for students, students survey, and in-person interviews with students and EFL teachers.
Analysis of the data determined the following findings for each data set. From the Test Scores, findings show that use of a bilingual dictionary by EFL students in a Saudi High school produced a significant increase (over 25%) in reading, writing, and total test scores. From the five themes on the student surveys, findings for the theme “importance of using bilingual dictionaries” show that 97% agree using bilingual dictionary is important, 85% agree it is important for word
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 89 translation and learning new words, and only 69% say using is important for improving reading.
Findings for the theme “type of word information” show that the most frequent type of word information looked for in a bilingual dictionary is definition (87%), followed by spelling (56%); the least looked for is collocations (14%); while example, part of speech, and pronunciation are tied for third place with almost half (48-49%) of the students using bilingual dictionaries to look it and half not. Findings for the theme “the necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL classes” show that about 3/4 of the participants support the necessity of a mandatory use of bilingual dictionaries during EFL lessons, while about half the participants feel that the necessity of using a bilingual dictionary is a personal choice. Findings from the theme “adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries” show that about 3/4 of the participants feel they received “enough” training on how to use a bilingual dictionary. However, while 75% say they can easily and quickly find a word in a bilingual dictionary, only 44% say they know how to use a bilingual dictionary. These findings suggest that over half the participants feel that there is more to using a bilingual dictionary than just being able to find a word. Findings for the theme “teacher’s dictionary-use strategies in classroom” show that about two-thirds of the participants agree that how they use a bilingual dictionary depends on the dictionary-use strategies used by their teachers in class. From the in-person interviews with students, findings show that the majority of the participating students whether at the beginning, intermediate or advanced proficiency levels confirm that the use of a bilingual dictionary is very important to them for help to translate a new
English vocabulary. From the in-person interviews with teachers, findings show that while the
EFL teachers interviewed do not all agree about which grades should use bilingual dictionaries, they do all agree that the use of a bilingual dictionary as important for learning word meaning and vocabulary. Most of the teachers also felt that students did not need instruction or strategies
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 90 on how to use the bilingual dictionary. A detailed discussion of these eight findings follows in the next section.
Discussion of Findings
The rate increase between the pre-test and post-test was 26% in reading section while in the writing section was 22%. Because the only variable to be changed between the pre-test and post-test is the participating students using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic), this analysis indicates that the use of a bilingual dictionary by EFL students in a Saudi High School produced a significant increase (over 25%) in reading, writing, and total test scores. Therefore, this difference between the two tests is positive, and it was also found to be statistically significant in this study. The findings of this study are consistent with the literature findings in current research
(Chen, 2011) examined bilingual dictionary with university EFL students in vocabulary learning and found that the students who utilized a bilingual dictionary attained significantly high scores on vocabulary reading than those who did not use the bilingual dictionary in their learning process. Shamshirain ( 2015) studied on Iranian EFL students in a high school by giving them a list of unknown words to find the meaning of those words and found that the bilingual group’s performance was better than of the monolingual groups. Vahdany et al. ( 2014) also examined bilingual dictionary with 80 Iranian students so as to investigate the lexical proficiency in writing skills and found that the participants who used bilingual dictionaries had higher scores than those who used monolingual dictionaries. Ma and Cheon (2016) also examined the effects of bilingual dictionary use on vocabulary learning with some high school students and found substantial
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 91 achievement in students’ scores on vocabulary except for those students who did not use bilingual dictionaries.
The findings from student surveys based on the data about the importance of using bilingual dictionaries indicate that of 97% of the participants agreed that knowing the translation of a word was important, and 85% agreed that using a bilingual dictionary is helpful for learning new words, but only 69% agreed that the dictionary is helpful for improving reading comprehension. Data analysis also shows that 86% of the participants feel that bilingual dictionaries, English-Arabic, help students understand word translations which in turn guide their literary appreciation. Therefore analysis of this data finds that the importance of using bilingual dictionaries is accepted by most but not all participants, and the greatest importance is for learning new words (vocabulary development).
As for the six types of word information, the data for this theme indicate that 87% of the participating students use bilingual dictionaries always or usually to find the definition of a word, while 56% use them usually or always to look for the correct spelling. However, the most rarely to never used and the one that most students (71%) had a negative attitude towards the idea of looking for word collocations in a bilingual dictionary. This attitude towards the types of word information indicates that students just wanted to know the definition followed by spelling of a word in a bilingual dictionary but not significantly interested in further information about the word. This high percentage indicated that the importance of knowing the meaning of the English vocabulary words when using a bilingual dictionary, which is consistent with the current literature (Folse, 2006; Maghsodi, 2010). Folse (2006) and Maghsodi (2010) agree that L2 students have a higher affinity for word retention if the L1 translations and definitions are provided. Hunt (2009) found that a bilingual dictionary is useful because it offers learners
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 92 information in both the home language and their second language. Chen (2011) found that students sometimes choose definitions from the dictionary that do not fit intended contexts hence not extract the most relevant information about the word or phrase from the dictionary.
With regard to the theme of the necessity of using bilingual dictionaries in EFL class, the findings for this theme indicate that 79% of the participants agreed in the school-established policy framework for the use of bilingual dictionaries and 65% of the participating students agreed in the curriculum driven policies that give more emphasis on the use of bilingual dictionaries in the EFL class, but only 57% agreed in self-driven initiatives to use bilingual dictionaries in EFL class. Therefore analysis of this data finds that the participating students believe in the externally-sourced drive to use bilingual dictionaries during English lessons. From their attitudes, it can be deduced that some of the participating students do not thoroughly think they are self-obligated to use bilingual dictionaries during EFL classes prompting increased awareness of the importance of using bilingual dictionaries during the EFL classes.
As for adequate training to use bilingual dictionaries, the findings indicate that 76% of the participating students agreed that they had received enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary and 75% of the participants agreed that they could easily and quickly find a word in a bilingual dictionary. There were only 44% of the participating students fully understand how to use a bilingual dictionary while 42% do not know; these numbers suggest inadequate training or learning on the use of a bilingual dictionary. Therefore analysis of this data finds that almost all participants agree that they have adequate training or self-learning on how to use bilingual dictionaries, but some of the participants disagree that they have enough training regarding the use of a bilingual dictionary. It seems that the teachers’ training methodology and approaches
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 93 may not be well connected to the students’ skills improvement as far as the use of dictionaries is concerned.
With regard to the theme of teachers’ dictionary use strategies in the classroom, which follows on the adequate training theme, the data analysis for this theme indicate that 61% of the participating students positively agree in the teacher’s classroom dictionary use strategies, but
22% of the participants disagree that their teacher’s dictionary strategies in classrooms were not up to the desired standards. This attitude means that the participating students have a negative impression of the teacher’s methodologies and approaches when it comes to dictionary use in the classroom. However, 15% of the students do not know whether the teacher’s dictionary-use strategies in class are good or not, it can be said that quite a significant number of student are indifferent on the issue of dictionary use approaches. Therefore analysis of this data finds that teacher’s classroom dictionary use strategies are accepted by most but not all participating students.
The results of the students’ interview reveal that all the five participating students have overall positive attitudes toward the use of a bilingual dictionary in EFL classroom. There five
EFL students prefer to use a bilingual dictionary where those type of dictionaries can evolve and enhance their vocabulary words. The participating students also reported that the utilization of a bilingual dictionary always increases their vocabulary words when they read and write through
EFL classes. An additional attitude, the participating students reported that a bilingual dictionary is an essential tool for learning the English language as it provides EFL students with the definition of the word. Therefore the interview findings are clearly correlated with the students’ survey findings which confirm that the EFL students’ attitudes were positive toward the impact of using a bilingual dictionary primarily for word definitions in EFL classes. These findings are
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 94 also in line with Al-salami and Hattab’s (2008) findings that show most of the students preferred bilingual dictionaries because these dictionaries helped them to obtain the meaning in their home language. The current findings are also consistent with Loucky’s (2001) study; the results revealed that the majority of the Japanese students preferred to use bilingual dictionaries because those dictionaries could provide them with the meaning of unknown words in their home language.
The findings of the teachers’ interview show that the four EFL teachers had positive perceptions towards the use of bilingual dictionaries during EFL classes. However, there was an
EFL teacher who had negative trends towards the utilization of bilingual dictionaries. Based on the results from the teachers’ interviews, the four EFL teachers stress that a bilingual dictionary is an essential tool for EFL classes because a bilingual dictionary is provided with the meanings of the vocabulary words that the student needs these meanings through reading and writing. EFL teachers confirmed that without giving the meaning of an English word, the students have difficulty understanding the English passages or writing compositions. This finding is consistent with Prichard’s (2008) statement, EFL teachers who use Traditional Grammar-Translation methods have recommended EFL students to use bilingual dictionaries when focusing on decoding and translating the text. The findings are also consistent with a survey by Ryu (2006) that indicates when students select their “favorite dictionaries” (p.90) seem to depend on recommendations from their EFL teachers who most often recommend bilingual English learning dictionaries. However, only one EFL teacher of the participants had another trend towards the use of a bilingual dictionary. The teacher prefers and recommends EFL in high schools students to use a monolingual dictionary that enhances students’ exposure to English, but he suggested to use a bilingual dictionary only for the elementary EFL students who consider
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 95 beginners. This attitude agrees with Thumb (2004) about the monolingual dictionary that can raise second language students’ linguistic ability from the second language display and the high- level context they provide. The findings also consistent with White (1997) posits that some first language translations as done in bilingual dictionaries may give students other language equivalents which are considered as inaccurate and mostly do little to elevate learners’ lexical knowledge. Lew (2004) also asserts that EFL students receive limited L2 information from bilingual dictionaries which could be “problematic” (p. 12) in many EFL context.
Significance of the Findings
This study investigates the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) for reading and writing in a Saudi high school. This study also investigates students’ attitudes and the teachers’ perceptions towards the use of a bilingual dictionary during EFL classes. These findings are significant to the EFL student because the findings show positive results regarding the impact of using a bilingual dictionary through reading and writing. Through the results, the participating students were able to raise their scores in the post-test in reading and writing section. Therefore, the findings give a positive indication of the effectiveness of the use of a bilingual dictionary on EFL students’ performance on reading and writing in Saudi schools.
On the other hand, the students’ survey and interviews show positive attitudes towards the importance of using a bilingual dictionary during EFL class. These positive findings are not limited to the EFL students only, but EFL teachers also have positive perceptions towards the utilization of a bilingual dictionary that makes EFL students understand unknown vocabulary words during EFL classes. Since these findings are significant in the educational process, the
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 96 main action to be taken is to reinforce and introduce the use of a bilingual dictionary in Saudi schools, especially for vocabulary growth.
Knowing these findings may encourage and enhance EFL students and teachers to use bilingual dictionaries during EFL classes. These findings would help EFL students to overcome the problem or stumbling block they face in acquiring the meaning of English vocabulary through helping them to use these bilingual dictionaries when they struggle with English reading and writing. The findings of this study show a significant number of the participants just wanted to know the definition of unknown English words. Therefore, EFL teachers in Saudi high schools should take into account that a bilingual dictionary can help the students to find more than just the meaning of the word. These positive findings may also contribute new knowledge and suggestions for course designers and curriculum developers about using bilingual dictionaries in
Saudi Schools. These findings also may influence education policymakers in Saudi Arabia to embrace and encourage the utilization of the bilingual dictionary in the curriculum at all school levels.
Limitations of the Findings
Although this research has fulfilled its purposes, however, some inescapable limitations occurred during this study. First, this study was conducted in the target school at the end of the school year. As a result of this, there was not enough time to expand the study with more follow- up interviews. Therefore, results may have been different if there had been more participants.
Second, some of the participating students had an oral test in some courses prior to writing the pre and post tests. As a result, some of the participating students came late to the pre-test and
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 97 post-test, thus limiting their writing time. Participants might have skipped or ignored some of the questions in both tests in order to finish on time. Misunderstanding of some survey questions leading to inaccurate responses by the participant is also a possible limitation. Another limitation was that the participants were all male. Lack of access to female participating students and teachers meant that this study was limited only to male students and teachers. Results may have been different if females had also participated.
Conclusion: Answer to the Research Question
The primary purpose of this research study was to answer the research questions fully.
Therefore, it is important to look at how these findings have answered to the research questions and combine to the previously existing literature on the title of this study at hand. The first question in this study was: What is the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) in a Saudi high school in reading and writing? An examination of the eight findings from this study suggests that the answer to this question is that the impact is increased scores on reading and writing tests, increased awareness by the students of the value of using a bilingual dictionary
(English-Arabic) especially for English vocabulary growth, and increased awareness that the impact of using a bilingual dictionary is limited by the strategies for use that students know or are taught. The second question in this study was: What are the high school students’ attitudes toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia? An examination of this study’s findings suggests that the answer to this question is that most students at all English proficiency levels feel that using a bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia is very important to help them translate and learn new vocabulary words, while only about 75% of
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 98 the students feel they have received enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary. The third question in this study was: What are the high school teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries in EFL classrooms in Saudi Arabia? An examination of the eight findings from this study suggests that the answer to this question is that both novice and experienced EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia agree that the use of a bilingual dictionary as important for learning word meaning and vocabulary, but they do not all agree about which grades should use bilingual dictionaries, and many of the teachers also felt that students did not need instruction or strategies on how to use the bilingual dictionary.
Recommendations for Future Research
Since the findings of this study are positive, there are some recommendations for a similar study in the future. The current study was conducted in only one high school in Saudi
Arabia. First recommendation, further research might include elementary and middle schools in order to gather more information regarding the level English proficiency and bilingual dictionary use. Second, further research might include viewpoint from more staff such as EFL supervisors and heads of ELF departments who are the ones that oversee the EFL teaching in Saudi Arabia.
Third, as mentioned earlier, all the participating students and teachers were male, further research might include a mixture of male and female participants so as to explore their attitudes based on their gender. The last recommendation would be that further research might be conducted through classroom practices to examine what extent the use of a bilingual dictionary may facilities the English language learning in EFL classes.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 99
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Appendix A: Bilingual Dictionary Survey for EFL Students
Background Information: Age:…………….. Gender: Male ☐ Female ☐ Years spent learning English:… English Proficiency Level: Beginning ☐ Intermediate ☐ Advance ☐
Dictionary use: Please check only one from the box below that is most true for you: 1- It is important for you to know the translation of a word ☐Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree 2- I think bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) use is helpful for learning new words ☐Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree 3- When I looked up a word in the bilingual dictionary, I found it easily and quickly ☐Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree 4- Bilingua1 dictionary can improve my reading comprehension ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree 5- My school should make the use of bilingual dictionary during EFL lessons mandatory ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐ Agree ☐ Strongly agree 6- My understanding of word translations (Arabic-English) from the bilingual dictionary guides my literary appreciation. ☐Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree 7- When you used a bilingual dictionary, what word information did you look for? a. Spelling (what letters are in the word) ☐ Never ☐ Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always b. Definition (what the word means) ☐ Never ☐ Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always c. Example/expressions (the word in a sentence or part of a sentence) ☐ Never Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always d. Part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) ☐ Never ☐ Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always e. Pronunciation (how to say the word) ☐ Never ☐ Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always f. Collocations (what other words a word is used with) ☐ Never ☐ Rarely ☐ Sometimes ☐ Usually ☐ Always 8- I should use a dictionary for more in English class ☐Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐Neutral ☐Agree ☐ Strongly agree 9- The teacher’s dictionary-use strategies employed in class are the main driving force behind the utilization of bilingual dictionary ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐ Agree ☐ Strongly agree 10- I think I have had enough training on how to use a bilingual dictionary ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐ Agree ☐ Strongly agree 11- More needs to be done in terms of curriculum development and teaching methodology to increase the efficiency of using bilingual dictionary in EFL classes. ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐ Neutral ☐ Agree ☐ Strongly agree 12- My school should make the use of bilingual dictionary during EFL lessons mandatory ☐ Strongly disagree ☐ Disagree ☐Neutral ☐Agree ☐Strongly agree
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 109
Appendix B: Interview for EFL Students (After taking posttest)
Background Information: Age:……………… Grade………………………
Number of years learning English language:……………. 1- How long have you been learning EFL classes and how many hours do you learning it in a week? 2- Do you use dictionaries during your reading and writing classes, if yes, what type of dictionary do you use? 3- Do you think bilingual dictionaries best enhance your vocabulary development and mastery of EFL? 4- What are some of the dictionary use skills that you employ when using a dictionary especially bilingual during EFL sessions? 5- What are some of the ways in which the bilingual dictionary improve your reading and writing of EFL materials? 6- What are some of the good dictionary-use strategies employed by your teachers to improve your dictionary utilization abilities bilingual dictionaries for the contextual and lexical meaning of words? 7- What are some of the challenges you encountered when using bilingual dictionaries during EFL reading sessions? 8- Suggest some of the ways that can be used to improve the effective use of dictionaries during EFL classes. 9- Can you describe your performance in reading comprehension and writing before and after using the bilingual dictionary during pre-test and post-test?
Appendix C: Interview for EFL Teachers
Background Information: Age:……………… Gender: Male ☐ Female ☐ Academic Qualification: Bachelor ☐ Master ☐ Ph.D. ☐ Number of years teaching EFL:………… Number of years learning English language:………
Dictionary use: 1- How many hours a week do you have EFL classes? 2- What type of dictionary do you prefer using in EFL class during writing and reading? 3- For the students, which type of dictionary do you recommend for them during the EFL classes? 4- Do you think the bilingual dictionaries enhance the student vocabulary development thus their improved writing and reading skills in EFL classes? 5- Do you think teachers are well trained on the skills of using bilingual dictionaries in classrooms? 6- Do you think students also need dictionary-use skills? If yes, what are some of these vital skills? 7- Name some of the major strategies that can be employed to ensure EFL students use bilingual dictionaries effectively during reading and writing. 8- According to your understanding, what are some of the challenges hindering the effective use of bilingual dictionaries during EFL class sessions.
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 110
Appendix D: Activity Before the Pretest and Posttest
Instructions (A): 1- Tick (√) next to every word you know and translate it into Arabic language. 2- Cross (X) next to every word you don’t know it.
I know the word. I do not know the word. Word Arabic Translation Tick (√) Cross (X) 1- Employee 2- Cooperate 3- Clever 4- Polite 5- Expect 6- Honest 7- Refund 8- Receipt 9- Journey 10- Infection 11- Overseas 12- Create 13- Chores 14- Graduate 15- Bargain
16- Celebrate 17- Addicted 18- President 19- kidney 20- Prescription 21- Hate 22- Manual 23- Earn 24- Atmosphere 25- Telescope 26- Flexible 27- Improve 28- Confident 29- Throw 30- Remember
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Appendix E: Pre-test (without using bilingual dictionary)
Reading Section: Read the text and answer the following questions: The first English attempts to colonize North America were controlled by individuals rather than companies. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the first Englishman to send colonists to the New World. His initial expedition, which sailed in 1578 with a patent granted by Queen Elizabeth was defeated by the Spanish. A second attempt ended in disaster in 1583 when Gilbert and his ship were lost in a storm. In the following year, Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Water Raleigh, having obtained a renewal of the patent, sponsored an expedition that explored the coast of the region that he named "Virginia." Under Raleigh's direction efforts were then made to establish a colony on Roanoke island in 1585 an6 1587. The survivors of the first settlement on Roanoke returned to England in 1586, but the second group of colonists disappeared without leaving a trace. The failure of the Gilbert and Raleigh ventures made it clear that the tasks they had undertaken were too big for any one colonizer. Within a short time the trading company had supplanted the individual promoter of colonization.
1- Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage? (A) The Regulation of Trading Companies (B) British - Spanish Rivalry in the New World (C) Early Attempts at Colonizing North America (D) Royal Patents Issued in the 16th Century
2- The passage states which of the following about the first English people to be involved in establishing colonies in North America? (A) They were requested to do so by Queen Elizabeth. (B) They were members of large trading companies. (C) They were immediately successful. (D) They were acting on their own.
3- According to the passage, the first English settlement on Roanoke Island was established in (A) 1578 (B) 1583 (C) 1585 (D) 1587
4- Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about members of the first Roanoke settlement? (A) They explored the entire coastal region. (B) Some did not survive (C) They named the area "Virginia". (D) Most were not experienced sailors.
(B)- Complete the sentences with these words: journey refund overseas clever bargain create a- There are a lot of …………………… students studying at our school. b- He likes to hunt for…………………….. when he shops. c- They had a difficult…………………..ahead of them. d- If you overpaid, you should demand a……………….. e- The machine …………………… a lot of noise. f- Some cats are ………………… to figure out how to operate doorknobs.
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Appendix E: Pre-test (without using bilingual dictionary) (page 2)
Writing Section: A-Choose three words from the box below to write three sentences:
Remember hate president atmosphere
1-……………………………………………………………… 2-………………………………………………………………. 3-………………………………………………………………
B-Write a short paragraph about how did you spend your holiday last year:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………
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Appendix F: Post-test (using bilingual dictionaries)
Reading Section: (A) -Read the text and answer the following questions: The oldest living things on Earth are trees. Some of California's sequoias have for four thousand years looked down on the changes in the landscape and the comings and goings of humans. They sprouted from tiny seeds about the time the Egyptian pyramids were being built. Today these giant patriarchs seem as remote and inaccessible as the rocks and mountain cliffs on which they grow, like cathedral columns holding up the sky. It is hard to imagine them playing any part in the lives of mere humans or being in any way affected by the creatures that pass at their feet. Lesser trees, however, have played an intimate role in the lives of people since they first appeared on Earth. Trees fed the fires that warmed humans: they provided shelter, food and medicine and even clothing. They also shaped people's spiritual horizons. Trees expressed the grandeur and mystery of life, as they moved through the cycle of seasons, from life to death and back to life again. Trees were the largest living things around humans and they knew that some trees had been standing on the same spot in their parent's and grandparents' time, and would continue to stand long after they were gone. No wonder these trees became symbols of strength, fruitfulness, and everlasting life.
1- What is the main idea of the passage? (A) Trees grow to great heights. (B) Trees have been important to people throughout history. (C) Trees make humans seem superior (D) Trees that grow in California are very old.
2- Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a way in which people have used trees? (A) For furniture (B) For fuel (C) For housing (D) For nourishment
3- In line 4, the phrase "giant patriarchs" could best be replaced by which of the following? (A) tiny seeds (B) important leaders (C) towering trees (D) Egyptian pyramids
4- In line 11, the word "they" refers to which of the following? (A) Trees (B) Grandeur and mystery (C) Seasons (D) People's spiritual horizons
5- Where in the passage does the author make a comparison between trees and parts of a building? (A) Line 1 (B) Lines 4-5 (C) Lines 9-11 (D) Lines 12-14
(B)- Complete the sentences with these words:
improve manual confident throw earn prescription . a- They…………over million dollars a year. b- He could not change gears in a …………………..car smoothly. c- You have to………………..English skills. d- The medication is only sold by a ……………………….
Impact of Using Bilingual Dictionary p 114
Appendix F: Post-test (using bilingual dictionaries) (page 2) e- My friend …………………..the ball back over the fence. f- I am…………………….in myself.
Writing Section: A-Choose three words from the box below to write three sentences:
honest kind employee create receipt
1-……………………………………………………………… 2-……………………………………………………………… 3-………………………………………………………………
B-Write a short paragraph about your ambition in life : ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………